Cruise Lines

Next month's cruise convention in Southampton is going from strength to strength, with a Premiere day now added where agents will be able to learn how to increase their cruise sales as well as lunch and take a tour of one of Princess Cruises' superliners.

Was it really only last year that Andy Harmer got up on stage in Dover to open the first cruise convention and introduce the world to the Association of Cruise Experts? I guess the speed at which this event has taken off just underlines how fast this sector of the industry is growing and what a great job ACE has been doing in the meantime.

Whether agents go for the Premier on May 16, the three-day event the following week, when there will be another five ships to see, or both (definitely the best option), it's a fantastic opportunity to learn more about cruising from some of the leading people in the industry. Proof indeed of how important the trade is to the cruiselines.

Premier day places are up for grabs now. Email natalie@psa-ace.org or call 020 7436 2449.

Heartening story for agents everywhere in Travel Weekly US this week.

Carnival Cruise Lines' president Gerry Cahill says they have reduced the size of the direct sales department and are putting more resources into getting trade bookings.

What has happened this year is our business with travel agents has grown significantly. Key to us is that the travel agent adds value. If someone is just an order-taker, that doesn't do a lot for us. But when somebody can help add value, they are a very important business partner to us.

http://www.travelweekly.com/article.aspx?id=175928

Amid all the doom and gloom of this are-we, aren't-we recession, it's good to see solid proof that cruise sales are buoyant. This comes from Results! Travel, a US travel agency group with 900 locations.

http://www.travelagentcentral.com/consortia/results-travel-survey-shows-growth-cruise-and-resort-sales

I have been picking up a few useful pointers on P&O Cruises' Ventura from Phil at the Cruise Village/Save 'n' Sail as he was on the ship in June and I am on later this month. Ventura, for those who have already forgotten, was launched in April and is the biggest in the P&O fleet, with lots of new-for-P&O stuff on board.

http://www.mycruiseblog.co.uk/

It all sounds pretty good, although he reckons the cover charge in The White Room is too high given the limited choice on the menu. I'll reserve comment on that issue, but I was surprised at the launch to discover that they have gone for flexible pricing in the speciality restaurants so people on shorter cruises pay more. I struggle to see how that can be justified, other than to the bean counters.

But what interested me most is his comment that Freedom dining is not working well because too many people book tables at their preferred sitting time each day so when radom diners turn up to eat, there is no room.

The turn-up-and-dine concept works very well on Princess Cruises (where it is called Anytime Dining) so I wonder what the problem is.

Could it simply be that Princess staff are more experienced at handling flexible dining because they've been doing it for so many years or because P&O people haven't got to grips with this idea of Freedom after so many years of being told when to eat and where to sit.

I just hope things are improving - and fast....

As founder Harley Van Stratten freely admits, the name cruisepricescompared.com hardly trips off the tongue - or indeed the keyboard - but it's hard to think of a moniker that more accurately suits what this new website does.

As my exclusive story in Travel Weekly this week explains, CPC is a marketplace where consumers can come in search of cruise deals and agents can advertise those deals for free. It couldn't get much simpler.

The catch is that if this is to succeed, Van Stratten needs lots of support from agents - and that means registering and putting up your cruise deals fast so there is something there for consumers to buy.

As it costs nothing and registration only takes minutes - or so I am told by Van Stratten, who is waiting by his computer now to OK applications (only ABTA or Travel Trust Association guys please) - it seems silly not to give it a go.

Once you're approved, you're free to put up your cruise deals using a series of drop-down boxes. That bit really is simple - I know because I have had a go.

The site's success also depends on cruise lines and other travel suppliers stumping up cash for adverts, and cruise lines can also pay for weekly slots on the home page to play their DVDs. That money will be ploughed back into cruise consumers' favourite newspapers - the likes of the Telegraph - to get them coming.

After all, a load of great deals with no one to buy them is pretty useless.

It's good to see that Peter Deilmann's previous disdain for agents is well and truly over, with a cash bonus the latest evidence that managing director Stuart Perl's really does know the benefit of having the trade on board, so to speak.

The incentive is simple. Agents who book a client on one of four half-price cruises this autumn not only get their standard commission, but an extra £40 per person booked to pocket as well. That's £80 for just one booking for two people, more for more bookings, but I'll leave you to do the maths.

Bookings need to be made before July 31, but with cruises along some of Europe's most iconic rivers at half price - that's less than £400 per person cruise-only on some itineraries - that should surely not be too difficult, especially for agents who know what this river cruise lark is all about.

Stuart Perl says he expecting strong support and a big payout. Not too big, I hope. He is still supposed to be making a profit, after all.

Carnival Splendor cruise director and fellow blogger John Heald's entry from yesterday does not cover the UK travel industry in glory.

Once you can get past his new-found love for Splendor's godmother Myleene Klass, his dislike of Chekhov and the theatre, he tells his readers about the open bar card Carnival gave all its non-paying guests.

This means that all the beverages were free.............and this means three awful long nights for the poor bar staff. While some of the agents treated the card with respect by ordering just one drink at a time others looked upon it as though they had just been given use of Bill Gates' Black American Express card for 3 days and therefore ................they were going to get absolutely hammered ...................and they did.

I saw things the last three nights that made me so not proud to be British as the Brit Travel industry let loose. I actually ventured into the dance club last night just to see the DJ and discovered Dante's hell. People were ordering three drinks at a time or more and the once polite country I knew and loved so much seemed to have given birth to young people who had not been taught words like "please" and "thank you" and "No, I have had enough to drink, I am going to bed............alone."

Just what the trade needs when it is trying to convince the world - or British travellers at least - that they know their cruising stuff and can make intelligent and sensible recommendations to help customers choose a cruise. Wonder if they realise that the stuff they are supposed to know isn't how quickly you can get served at the bar.

Sad words in view of an earlier blog this morning in praise of the trade.

I'm pleased to say Heald does go on to say most agents were well behaved and ends with a story of how over-indulging on Le House Wine hen in his 20s got him locked up in France for a night. It's very funny, so stick with the blog - and let's hope his readers remember that, and not the agents' antics, as they tune out.

Catharine Hamm, a staffer on the Los Angeles Times, has a very tortuous style but finally manages to get around to answering a reader's travel dilemma. And it's a good response.

To book through a travel agent or not, that is the question.

Quoting Jay Rein, chief executive and president of US on-line travel agency Travelworm.com, she concludes that booking your cruise through an agent not only means you get the best choice of which line to choose, but also the best deals, whether that be upgrades of perks.

Hamm concludes:

If I set sail again, I'll use an agent, whether it's clicks or bricks, because, frankly, he or she (or it) will offer to help. And when was the last time anybody else in the travel industry bothered to do that?

Isn't it great to find someone on your side?

I'm delighted - as I risked saying it was such a good idea - that cruisepricescompared.com, the on-line cruise market place that I wrote exclusively about in Travel Weekly this month, seems to have been a big hit with agents.

Harley Van Straten, who has gone from being the man behind the idea to managing director of the website - where agents can post cruise deals for free - said he was inundated with 150 independent agent registrations within days of the website going live.

Demand has been so high that it has been opened up to members of the Global Travel Group as well as ABTA and Travel Trust Association agents.

I'm amazed how well everything has gone. When I set this up I would have been happy with 50 registrations in the first week and we've already achieved three times that number with more coming on each day.

Van Straten now has to make part two of the business work - namely making consumers aware of the site so they can go in and book the offers posted by agents.

Any registered agents out there? Let me know how it goes.

P&O Cruises has really fired up the nation's cruisers with its latest smoking policy if the comments that have been flooding into the Cruise.co.uk website are anything to go by.

As from October, smoking will be banned on all inside public areas on Ventura, Oceana and Artemis. Smokers will still be able to light up on selected areas of open deck and on their balconies.

Smokers are shouting "not fair"; non-smokers are rejoicing with a holier-than-thou attitude which has then also irritated the smokers....and so it goes round and round.

Having been in cabins just vacated by smokers. I am all for banning smoking in staterooms, and personally I don't like it when people smoke on the balcony next to mine, but otherwise I have to say I'm with the smokers on this one (and I write as an ex-smoker of many years now).

It seems very unfair not to provide a lounge/pub, call it what you will, where smokers can puff away in the company of like-minded puffers. Non-smokers don't have to go in and always have plenty of other lounge areas to ang out in so they can't really compain.

It's called let and let live - although that's probably not the best expression where cigarettes are concerned!

I reckon what really matters is that people who don't like smoke can get away from it (so I wonder therefore whether the balcony and open deck is the best place, given the wind carries smoke, the smell, etc, but guess time will tell).

There's just three weeks to go before the September 7 start of National Cruise Week, the campaign organised by the Association of Cruise Experts to get Brits thinking cruise.

This is being billed as the world's largest-ever cruise campaign, with 2,000 agencies up and down the country signed up and planning events during the week to try to persuade that sector of great British public that still thinks cruising is for rich old people - ie the majority - that they are a little behind the times.

Event ideas from ACE include a spa night, captain's dinner or poker school - all things that are associated with cruising.

If all goes according to plan it should be a great time for agents to be involved in raising the profile of the industry and hopefully making a few bookings along the way.

Free promo packs have been provided by the Spanish National Tourist Office and if you sign up with ACE, your event will be promoted by the Mail on Sunday and Telegraph.

I see Ideal Cruising is selling a nine-night Canary Islands cruise from Barcelona on Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jade this winter for just £510 per person - and that includes return flights from Gatwick.

I appreciate that this will be NCL's first winter cruising in the Med and Atlantic so they are testing the waters, so to speak, but it's hard to believe anyone can be making anything from that giveaway price.

Except the customer, of course, who is getting an absolute steal - especially as they can bag an outside cabin for just £92 per person more.

It's for a cruise departing December 12, which just happens to be my favourite day of the year (and not because it's when Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas is scheduled to set off on its maiden voyage) but is probably not a good time to try to get people thinking about a cruise given most minds are focused on turkey and tinsel.

Either that, or people are planning to escape the big day, in which case they won't want to be away just before as well.

Costa and MSC have made it work, so really there's no reason why NCL shouldn't - except, of course that the former appeal to the European market while NCL depends heavily on the Americans.

And why would Americans want to cruise over here in a warm-ish, if they're lucky, winter when they have sun, sea and sand on their Caribbean doorstep - and without forking out a fortune in airline fuel supplements.

Pre-Xmas blues or a deeper malaise? Only time will tell.

Cruise.co.uk put out an email this week asking cruisers for their favourite shore excursions.

Some answers are a bit obvious - catamaran in St Kitts, Dunn's River in Jamaica, swimming with dolphins, the Colosseum in Rome - but a few are quite adventurous and a bit different.

But my favourite has to be from Matt, who counted up the replies and then asked, "why are you asking this question".

Just as everyone was thinking the new ship building boom was over - I refer you to a report on Tripso by Anita Dunham-Potter - sharp-eyed cruise watchers spot news on Aker Yards website saying MSC Cruises has ordered two more Musica-class ships.

Sisters to MSC Poesia, the ships will weigh 89,600 tons and carry 2,550 passengers and be delivered in Febrary 2011 and February 2012.

MSC notwithstanding, Dunham-Potter is surely right in predicted the end of the new ship boom As she points out, all the cruiseships on the shipyards' books bar the MSC duo - she estimates 35 vessels at a cost of $22 billion - were ordered before the price of fuel shot up and world economies shot down.

But does it matter that the boom is over, for a couple of years at least? We all love new ship launches, but I can't help thinking it will be a good thing to give the new capacity coming into the market time to settle - there are still 35 ships to come, after all, and two of those are Royal Caribbean's giant 5,400-passenger vessels.

Simple supply-and-demand economics also tells me that a shortfall in capacity means prices will go up. And higher prices surely are better for cruiselines and agents. Given that, I wonder whether MSC wouldn't be better to watch and wait until it starts to command higher fares.

Do we need more cruise ships? Let me know what you think.

Ocean Village is spending £1 million on a multi-media advertising campaign starting next week, which will include TV ads in the Granada, Central, Yorkshire and West Country TV regions.

The cruise line for people who don't do cruises is targeting its core 35-54 market with a one-week cruise in the Med from £599 per person. Gill Haynes, OV's head of marketing, says it's a keen lead price that represents great value for money in the current economic climate.

I would say it's an incredible deal. Don't forget that price even includes a flight and transfers. Amazing.

Agents had better get ready for the rush.

It started officially yesterday, but this is the first working day of the UK's first National Cruise Week.

With 2,000 agents registered to take part and cruiselines bringing out some great offers to support the trade, there has surely never been a better time to get the cruising message across to the great British public.

Not only that it's a great holiday, but also great value at a time when everyone is looking hard at the pennies.

Princess Cruises, for instance, is giving away two free nights in Copenhagen next summer to anyone who books a 10-night Scandinavia and Russia cruise this week, or offering a £300 discount to clients booking a Med 2009 cruise on the new Ruby Princess.

Island Cruises has brought out a Captain's Specials mini-brochure to cash in on the extra interest in cruising expected to be generated by this week's activities.

At the moment the Passenger Shipping Association forecasts 1.5 million Brits will take a cruise this year, rising to 1.7 in 2009. It would be great if this week, organised by the PSA's trade arm, the Association of Cruise Experts, is such a success that the figure has to be revised upwards.

Good news for all agents who are going to miss seeing Celebrity Cruises' new Celebrity Solstice - this is the one with the real lawn and the first new Celebrity ship for six years - which comes out of the shipyard in November and goes straight to the US/Caribbean.

Jo Rzymowska, managing director for Celebrity Cruises UK and Ireland, tells me that the next Solstice-class ship, Celebrity Equinox, will be making a first stop at Southampton when it leaves the shipyard in Germany next August.

After the trade has had time to see it, Equinox will be picking up its first paying passengers in th south coast port for a cruise to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, where it will be based for the rest of the summer alongside Solstice, which comes back to Europe after an inaugural season in the Caribbean.

Two new Celebrity ships in the Med? That's confidence for you.

Incidentally, I'm lucky enough to be one of a select few from the UK going on board Solstice at the end of next week as it sails out of the shipyard at Meyer Werft and down the River Ems to Gandersum, so keep an eye out here for my first impressions.

Agents who make three confirmed bookings of seven nights or more with Celebrity Cruises before September 28 will be entered in a draw to win a cruise for two on the new Celebrity Solstice as part of a Celebrity's autumn campaign. There are also 10 runners-up prizes worth £500 each.

Celebrity Solstice is the ship with a real lawn on the top deck and live glass-blowing. It launches in November, offering seven-night cruises around the Caribbean.

To stand a chance of winning, agents need to make the bookings and then fill in the entry form at www.cruisingpower.co,uk

The collapse of XL could lead to an increase in dynamically-packaged holidays, according to Nigel Lingard, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines marketing director.

He told the Association of National Tourist Office Representatives/Passenger Shipping Association conference in London yesterday that cruiselines will struggle to find enough capacity to get passengers to their ships next year as a result of XL's demise.

XL was used by some cruiselines so they will have to find other aircraft to charter. We all use charter airlines as we have to get 2,000-3,000 passengers to our ships at once for our flycruises, and without XL there will be a tightening of capacity.

Lingard also said the prices being quoted by charter carriers have gone up since XL collapse and forecast a shift to more longer ex-UK cruises, in fact exactly what Fred is doing, to avoid having to fly people.

There will be problems for all, but ironically it could lead to more opportunities for agent to dynamically package holidays for their clients, selling cruise only and adding flights and pre and post-cruise hotels stays.

With Celebrity Solstice off doing its sea trials around the North Sea, workers at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, are turning more attention to Celebrity Cruises' Solstice Number 2, otherwise known as Celebrity Equinox, pictured here behind me.

The ship, a sister to Solstice, launches in July 2009 and will make a first call in Southampton so UK agents and prospective passengers can get a look, before it sets off on its inaugural cruise from the UK to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, for what remains of the summer season sailing in the Med.

A new cruise portal, bestcruisedeal, launches on October 1 where cruiselines and agents can access "thousands of cruisers and promote deals, late availability and new itineraries".

As the site wasn't live when I looked yesterday, I'm not sure how they know about these thousands of cruisers. Wishful thinking and a bit of sales talk, I suspect.

The founders of the site are in talks with cruiselines and cruise specialist agents to enable them to promote their deals on the site on a permanent basis. A range of advertising and promotional packages are available, starting from £500 a month.

Sound familiar? In July I had an exclusive story in Travel Weekly about the launch of cruisepricescompared.com, which allows agents to advertise their cruise deals. The difference is, posting a deal on CPC costs agents nothing.

The launch was all very hush, hush for fear that someone might copy the idea. Seems CPC was right. Imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, though.

Is bestcruisedeal just an imitation? Let me know what you think.

It was a change waiting to happen once Thomson and First Choice became as one. Now it has.

As the rumour mill predicted, Royal Caribbean Cruises has sold its 50% stake joint venture stake in Island Cruises to TUI Travel.

Island Star, on charter from Celebrity Cruises, will complete its Caribbean winter season and be returned to Celebrity on March 26 2009. It will then join Royal Caribbean's Pullmantur Cruises Spanish operation.

Royal Caribbean Cruises chairman and chief executive office Richard Fain said the company wants to focus on developing and expanding the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises brands in the UK.

"[This way] we will be better able to serve our customers and create value for our shareholders. This belief has been strengthened by the success of the inaugural season of Independence of the Seas, which has served the UK market from Southampton, since it entered service in May 2008."

Island second ship, Island Escape, will complete its winter season sailing in Brazil and then return to the Med, cruising from Palma in summer 2009 as planned, but as a Thomson Cruises ship rather than an Island one. It is not clear whether the name will be changed, but a statement says it is being "integrated" into the Thomson fleet so it's a fair bet that it will at the very least become the Thomson Escape.

Details of the deal and how it affects passengers booked on Island cruises are detailed on the Thomson Cruises website.

Island's managing director Patrick Ryan will leave the company in December. David Selby, TUI's director of cruising, stays at the helm of the new integrated business.

It's a sad end for a cruiseline that, after a chequered start, built up a good following in the UK for its low-cost cruises and casual brand. I reckon a lot of that was down to the captains, who were always to be seen out and about talking to passengers, which the passengers loved. It gave the cruise a human touch.

Island Escape was not the best ship in the world - one couple I met on another cruise called it the Island Mistake and rued the day they went on it - but I had a very enjoyable few days on Island Star, which was a big step up. Unfortunately for TUI, Royal Caribbean gets Star back, Thomson gets the Escape.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the ship's dining. Island is all about buffet dining, with waiter service available at extra cost. Thomson has a 24-hour buffet but waiter service in the evening as standard. Difficult for Thomson to have an odd one out in the fleet so I suspect Escape will have to change.

Hurtigruten's new trade website is a useful new tool for agents planning to sell the cruise line.

There are lots of useful bits and pieces - a place to order brochures and download flyers, find out about training and fam trips, a FAQ section.

The Norway map, where you can see at a glance where the ships visit when they sail between Bergen and Kirkenes, is very helpful. It would be good to have one for each of Hurtigruten's other destinations - Spitsbergen, Greenland, even Antarctica, along with details of the ships that serve these rather specialist areas.

That information is on the main site, I know, but it's a pain if you have to keep jumping between URLs.

Casual cruiseline Ocean Village is offering one week in the Caribbean for £749 per person (from £99 for kids under 12) - an incredible deal given that it includes flights and transfers.

The low, low price is on a December 17 departure - a seven-night Corals and Coconuts cruise on Ocean Village Two - which is a bit of an awkward time for agents to sell I guess because it's so close to Christmas for those who want to be back for festivities with family and friends.

But you know, Christmas has a habit of coming around every year. Deals like this might not. Blue skies and Caribbean sun or the grey skies and rain? A bit of a no-brainer really,

First it was the oldies; now it seems it's the big spenders who will take the cruise industry through the recession.

Because just as the rest of the industry starts to feel the crunch, White Star Cruises, the luxury cruise arm of WEXAS - The Travellers Club, reports record sales figures in October.

The on-line company sells only five and six-star cruiselines - the likes of Crystal Cruise, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, SeaDream Yacht Club, Swan Hellenic and Peter Deilmann - and says its average sales price is a whopping £5,500 per person.

Just to prove things are good, White Star has produced a 60-page on-line brochure featuring 15 of the world's top-rated cruiselines. General manager Scott Anderson calls it "informative, inspirational and independent".

No, I don't entirely follow the logic either. If a company is so happily crunch-busting, why spend time and effort creating such a masterpiece? But no matter. It's refreshing to have good news while all around is recession. Long may the luxury guys carry on cruising.

Here's some interesting news from Grand UK Holidays that should help to banish some of the clouds hanging over the cruise industry.

The over-55s specialist has found that the grey market is not half so concerned about the current economic downturn as bright young things saddled with debt.

Research by web analyst Hitwise found that almost 60% of vistors to cruise websites are aged over 55. More importantly for the trade, its report says they are more likely to book through a travel agency than direct with the cruise company.

"UK internet visits to cruise websites, which typically peak in December, increased by 8.2% between September 2007 and September 2008."

Hitwise figures also show that in the three months ended October 25 2008, the Caribbean was the most searched-for cruise destination in the UK, while Norway was the most popular destination. During September, P&O Cruises was the most visited cruise website in the UK, receiving one in every 10 visits to the category.

Naturally there is a reason why Grand UK is giving us this info. It has just launched its 2009 summer cruise programme featuring cruises from the UK on Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and Transocean Tours, which operates sailings on Marco Polo from Tilbury.

Grand UK Holidays sales director Harold Burke said retired holidaymakers are less affected by mortgage rate rises and their kids have left home. They're also accustomed to taking several breaks a year and can travel in term times.

"We are not immune to the effects of the economy but we have not yet seen a downturn, and our experience is mirrored in these statistics."

Travelmole reports P&O Cruises is to make some changes to Ventura after admitting to facing "challenges" in the first summer season.

In a letter to travel agents, managing director Nigel Esdale says they will stop taking bookings for the Freedom dining restaurant so diners really do have freedom to turn up and dine when they want - hopefully getting a table straight away - the Beach House self-service will become an informal dining venue with waiter service and sunloungers will be placed on deck 19, in an area previously devoted only to the bungee trampolines and Cirque Ventura.

"We will retain the bungee trampolines which have been a real hit with passengers aged from 8 to 84. And we will continue to offer the Cirque Ventura circus skills school teaching the art of juggling, tightrope and stilt walking."

In addition, new furniture, including a reclining chair, will be put on cabin balconies, to help alleviate demand for loungers on the open deck.

I reported in my cruise column in the Telegraph on the problems of Freedom dining I encountered when I was on board and spoke to people who were fed up with the morning rush to grab a sunlounger so it's good news that all these things are now being addressed.

Worrying story in Travel Agent Central of the tough time being faced by US travel agents because, as we all known, what happens over the Pond happens over here.

Of course it's inevitable that bookings will slow when recession hits and people are worried about money and jobs, but one agents says people are "scared" and admits she has very few new orders."Scared" is a different ball game.

On the positive side, cruise lines are coming in with bargains to try to encourage sales. The paper says Celebrity Cruises had a three-day Post-Election Sale-a-Bration. Clever, but not nearly as attractive as MSC's cruise for £1 offer.

Other lines are upping commission to get agents on side; others still are moving ships to local ports to try to capture demand. It's why Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill decided to pull out of Europe.

"Close-to-home cruise options...are clearly the preference of the vast majority of the mainstream vacation market right now."

There's never been a better time to go cruising on your own.

Elegant River Cruises, part of Connections, which is the independent travel division of Titan Travel, is offering no single supplements to travellers who book a spring cruise before December 31. It means a potential saving of nearly £2,500.

Now Oceania Cruises has slashed the single supplement on Far East and Australia cruises on Nautica between December 2008 and April 2009, cutting it from 100% to 50%.

I reckon we'll see a lot more offers for singles over the coming weeks as lines pull out all the stops to fill their ships in these credit-crunching times.

Agents should urge clients travelling along to make the most of it and who knows? Maybe the cruise lines will discover a hidden market and the lower supplements will stick.

Or maybe not. But it's a nice thought.

Italian line Costa Cruises has been named "Best Cruise Company" at the annual Virgin Holidays awards. Runners up were Carnival and Ocean Village.

Naturally managing director Marco Rosa is pleased - in fact almost as thrilled as when I saw him last week, racing high-performance cars at a fantastic day out at Thurleigh Airfield near Bedford with some of his top-selling agents and fellow scribes.

He now has to come back down to earth and get ready for 2009, when Costa has two new ships launching - the Costa Luminosa and Costa Pacifica - so close to each other they are sharing a naming ceremony.

Hebridean International Cruises is going back to the Caribbean and Central America for winter 2009/10 - and this time it is taking people on the transatlantic.

The cruiseline's 98-passenger Hebridean Spirit made its debut in the region in winter 07/08 and that time went over the Pond empty, thinking that no one would want to be making that journey in a 4,200-ton ship. It seem they were wrong.

"The brochure's only been out a couple of weeks but we already have some bookings for the crossing," managing director Mike Deegan told me on the even smaller Hebridean Princess - just 2,112 tons and yes, the one the Queen chartered - when it was in Tilbury this week.

The night before I was there, it had been hosting Hebridean's top-selling agents for an awards evening and overnight. It is a lovely little ship, with quaint but beautifully-appointed cabins, but at that size I can understand why they run for cover at the first sign of bad weather.

News of those intrepid transatlanticers is interesting, but the real point here is that they have actually been able to book because the brochure is already out - part of a strategic move by Hebridean to stop lagging behind when it comes to getting its cruises out on agents' shelves.

There are some great cruises in there, more Caribbean than before, and taking Spirit though the Panama Canal and into ports in Cuba that most people will never have heard of.

The 2010 summer programme will be out in March, and one brochure will feature cruises on both ships, which is also a first for the cruiseline - usually there are two brochures for each ship each year.

I am told Princess will be doing its usual Scotland stuff, but dropping its Norway visits as Spirit is going north for the summer, covering off Norway and the Arctic areas.

When it is a taster cruise from Cruise Thomas Cook. These tasters are a benefit for anyone who joins the retailer's new Cruise Club and explained as follows:

"For those who want to sample a life at sea for real, taster cruises are available for The Cruise Club members to book for a small fee. Once on board members will be given the opportunity to sample a menu and view a selection of cabins to help decide if a cruise is right for them. If it is, when they book, the fee will be refunded."

Wow. What a fab offer. You can go on a short cruise and "sample life at sea" - and the cost is refunded if you then book another cruise?

Er, no. It's actually a ship visit, a meal on board and a tour of the cabins.

Nothing new there then.

Princess Cruises must be cock-a-hoop about Cruise Thomas Cook's new cruise report.

The Love Boat line puts a lots of store on romance and now it transpires they were right, with nearly two-thirds of the 5,000 Brits polled by the cruise retailer revealing that a cruise helps to put the spark back in their relationships.

More than half of those surveyed said tables for two at dinner get them in a romantic mood, while 30% said dining on their cabin balcony gets them in the mood (good news for Princess, which has Anytime dining for passengers who want a romantic table for two and balcony dining for lovers who prefer a little privacy).

Just under a quarter said a Champagne breakfast worked magic in the romance department, while one in four said they'd like to get married on a cruise ship (yes, Princess can help there as well, with its weddings at sea performed by the captain). The findings are just a few of the facts to emerge from Cruise Thomas Cook's first cruise report.

* 70% would like to see a full-scale West End or Broadway musicals (with West End and Broadway quality performers, I would hope, but history doesn't relate).

* 57% wanted a total ban on smoking.

* 44% would love a branch of Marks & Spencer and Boots on a cruise ship (why go away if you want to take the high street with you, I wonder?)

* 45% of female cruisers buy new undies before setting off on a cruise (hopefully they are cruising with their loved ones, although again history does not relate).

* 65% prefer organised shore excursions to exploring alone.

It's all good fun stuff, but the really important thing for agents and cruise lines is that the survey bears out what has been said so many times: Get someone on a cruise once and they will be back. Some 4,811 of the 5,000 polled had been on a cruise and more than three quarters said they "were very likely" to cruise again.

Cruise Thomas Cook director Marc Bennett said: "As an independent cruise retailer we are in a good position to provide this type of report. There is no angle for us but the most important factor in continuing to grow the UK cruise market will be a greater understanding of the needs and requirements of today's cruise passengers."

Do I spy a possible sideline selling undies? I'll bet it's more lucrative than travel insurance and forex, and certainly a lot more interesting.

Oceania Cruises president Bob Binder is not running scared after Nautica was fired on by pirates at the end of last month.

In an interview in Travel Weekly US, he says they will evaluate itineraries in the area in the interest of the safety of passengers, crew and safety - no surprise there - but adds the pirates are "not a great concern".

I imagine the incident was frightening for passengers - that's if they noticed it was happening. Binder says they were asked to leave the open decks twice (standard procedure in such an incident), but the whole thing was over in just a few moments.

But if we're going to let pirates frighten us out of the Gulf of Aden, cruiseships should also stop sailing into Santorini in case they hit an inaccurately chartered reef and avoid the Arctic and Antarctica as they might hit an iceberg. They should also stay out of the English Channel in case they come across the waterborne equivalent of a boy racer.

Life would be so safe. But oh so boring.

We need to see more stories like this. John W Schoen writing for msnbc and quoting a panel of economists who reckon the green shoots of recovery are starting to appear amid all the doom and gloom.

Could it be? Well, why not? No one forecast the recession until it was almost upon us, so who's to say it won't go in an equally unexpected fashion.

More to point, is it really good news? Well, for all those of us shuddering every time they say house prices are going down more or for anyone fearful of losing their job, of course it is.

With discounts of 50% and more biting into their bottom lines, we can be pretty confident that cruiselines would rather see the back of the recession as well.

But what about cruisers? There are some fantastic bargains around at the moment for anyone with a few pennies in the bank, And let's face it, a lot of cruisers have quite a few pennies, even if they are smarting from the current ultra-low interest rates. They might be fed up with all the bad news, as are we all, but they are having a fine time with all the bargains around. Why would they want a return to the status quo?

Rob Lovitt, also writing for msnbc, taking his cue from those aforementioned economists, suggests there could be a rebound in consumer confidence in the second half of the year - and therefore a rebound in people's willingness to travel.

I think he could be right. It's going to be a tough year, but who can resist when Oceania Cruises knocks 50% off prices or NCL dishes out cruises for less than £90 a day. Or you can pick up a transatlantic crossing on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 for just £699 including a flight. If the bargain hunters do their bit, we could end the year with a record number of UK cruisers.

Even if he's not right, it's the kind of upbeat news we could all do with hearing and could also get those bookers booking.

Here's to cruising in 2009. Let's make it a good one.

The year might not have ended but it's already time for agents to sign up for the Association of Cruise Experts 2009 cruise convention, on June 17-19.

It will be back in Dover but with lots of added features including a Discovery Zone with information about ports and destinations, an appointments' system so agents can be sure of a meeting the suppliers they want to see, as well as business sessions covering everything from luxury to river cruising.

Agents will also the chance to visit four cruise ships - Holland America Line's Prinsendam, Fred Olsen's Braemar, Crystal Cruises' Crystal Symphony and Princess Cruises' Tahitian Princess - which will be in port during the two days of the convention.

Americans are carrying on cruising by lowering their standards and time at sea, according to a report in Florida Today, which quotes Howard Frank, Carnival's chief operating officer, to back up the story.

"Our shorter, less expensive Caribbean cruise products are performing much better than our premium and luxury, longer cruise products. So we are seeing a consumer trade-down to value."

Apart from being notable for a rather big howler in the copy*, the report is interesting as it shows that not every fad and fancy crosses the Pond.

In the next edition of TW Cruise, out February 20, I report that British cruisers are not trading down in the recession - in fact some cruise lines say they are trading up as there are such good deals out there. After all, If you can get an outside cabin for just a few pounds more than an inside, or to go from an outside to a balcony, why wouldn't you?

As for spending less time at sea. Not so easy for us as the Miami crowd. There are a few short-break cruises from the UK, but most are seven nights and usually 14 just because of the time it takes to get anywhere (with apologies to St Peter Port, Cork and Zeebrugge, but a day trip to either is hardly the stuff of main summer holidays).

* In case you haven't spotted it, here it is: Sovereign of the Seas sailed for Royal Caribbean International, not Norwegian Cruise Line. But anyway the ship transferred to Spanish line, Pullmantur, owned by Royal Caribbean, last October, and now cruises under the name Sovereign.

NCL started operating three and four-day cruises from Miami to the Bahamas in July 2008, but on Norwegian Sky, the ship plucked out of Hawaii after dwindling sales for the NCL America brand.

Cruise.co.uk regulars have been locked in a discussion this week over pre-paid gratuities. The story so far is that Evans from Spain pre-paid his/her gratuities and was then asked by the travel agent to pay more "because the pound has dropped".

Most responses have been properly outraged at the whole idea of pre-paying tips. If it's a thank you for good service, how can it be paid before you have had the service, they want to know. And I agree.

But contrary to what most replies have said, you can pre-pay tips on Celebrity. It's dressed up as a benefit of course - "so you don't have to worry about the extra expense on board" - but really only shows the gratuities business up for what it is. Namely an additional cost separated off to keep the headline cruise price down.

The key point is that pre-paying is an option if you're cruising with Celebrity. If you prefer you can have gratuities added to your account - either the amount they stipulate or more/less - or taken off so you can tip your cruise staff in cash (if you so choose). If you pre-pay, you can't just ask for the money back if the service doesn't come up to scratch.

So either Evans agreed to pre-pay somewhere during the booking process without realising or the travel agent made a decision on his/her behalf, which doesn't sound right or fair.

As for the increased amount, I suspect it's simply because Evans' cabin was upgraded. Ordinary folk pay one amount, suite passengers pay more because they have a butler to tip as well. The amounts are $11.50 a day for ordinary cabins, $12 a day for Concierge and Aquaclass cabins and $15 for those in a suite, so the butler gets $3.50.

For information, you can also choose to pre-pay gratuities if you're cruising with Celebrity's sister Royal Caribbean, unless you opt for the new Mytime dining, which allows you to eat when and with whom you want, when pre-paying is compulsory. The logic is that you can't tip your waiter for the week, as you can on a fixed dining plan, because you'll have a different one every day.

If you book with Azamara Cruises, which also comes from the Royal Caribbean stable and has open dining as standard, you also have to pay gratuities upfront.

Cruise.co.uk has revealed the best cruise lines and ships as voted in January 2009 by the consumer reviews posted on its site. The results are interesting and will make some cruise lines very happy and others wonder why they bother. Here are some of the highlights.

* Three awards for Oceania - Best Ship, Best Food and Best Service.

* Best Cruise Line goes to Cunard.

* Princess Cruises wins Best Shore Excursion and comes sixth and 10th in the same award.

* Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas is named Best for Families. P&O Cruises takes the next four places with family ship Ventura the least favourite of the four.

Cruise.co.uk says the survey is based on 12,000 reviews on the site and that the awards are based on a minimum 50 votes for cruise lines, 20 votes for ships. Not a huge number out of 12,000.

They are fine. What worries me is that is you click the "NEW - Official Cruise Passenger Ratings" button in the site - which most people will - you get some meaningless results.

Viking River Cruises becomes the Best Cruise Line based on two reviews. Hebridean is in second place with one review.

Change the criteria and ask for best cruise ship in all age ranges and the winner is Wind Star with two reviews. Discover Egypt's river cruise boat Beau Soleil comes third with - yes you guessed it - one review. Thing is, if you look on the Discover Egypt site, there is no Beau Soleil.

In 11th place there's F3. Um. But's that being built. Doesn't launch until next year. In 15th place comes P&O Cruises Adonia. But that became Sea Princess in 2005.

Drill down through the ages and you get some even more fantastic results - Carnival ahead of Fred Olsen in the 56-65 age group, Viking River Cruises and Spirit of Adventure top in the 36-45 year-old category.

Just to make things even more interesting, the results change every time I look. So forgive me if you see different ships in different places. That's the reason.

I've had hours of fun playing with this, but that's not really the point. Cruise.co.uk needs to do more work on the survey - don't let any entry in with fewer than 10 votes (20 would be better) and take out all the rogue reviews. Then we'll start to have some really valid ratings.

Here's the full list of January 2009's top performers with scores:

Best Ship: Oceania Insignia - score 4.55 out of 5

Best Cruise Line: Cunard - 4.36 out of 5

Best Accommodation: Costa Mediterranea - 4.75 out of 5

Best Entertainment: Independence of Seas - 4.37 out of 5

Best Food: Oceania Insignia - 4.77 out of 5

Best Service: Oceania Insignia - 4.86 out of 5

Best for Families: Independence of the Seas- 4.28 out of 5

Best Shore Excursion: Star Princess - 4.22 out of 5.

Mundy Cruising has promoted Sophie Higgins, sales and marketing director of the Cruise Portfolio, Jamie Loizou, sales and marketing director of Mundy Cruising, and Caroline Jenkins, head of accounts, Mundy Cruising. All three (pictured left to right) become associate directors for the cruising specialist. Congratulations to them all.

The things you have to do if you're a cruise ship captain. Host welcome parties, drive ships, smile at passengers, give away your uniforms.

Yes, that last one was new on me too, but I hear Captain Teo Strazicic, skipper of Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas, handed over one of his uniforms to Juan Pablo Di Pace, who played Petros in Mamma Mia! - that's the gay guy who hooks up with Harry at the end.

Why? Well, Juan plays Captain Alvarez (below in his uniform) in Royal's upgraded in-line agent training programme, which goes live today, Friday February 5.

Luckily, Captain Teo had another uniform to wear for the picture. This is a family blog after all.

Jami Sales, managing director of UncommonCruises.com, tells Travel Agent in the US that agents should get themselves "pumped up" about the new cruise ships launching this year "then pick up the phone and let clients know that something very exciting is going on - and that you want to be sure they know about it."

I'm with Jami on this. She might be talking about the US market but there's nothing British cruisers like better than to think they are among the first passengers on a new ship. And why not? We all love new things.

With nine new ships coming out this year (that's excluding three others not on sale in the UK), ranging from uber-luxury with Yachts of Seabourn and Silversea to fun in the sun with Carnival Cruise Lines, there's got to be one that appeals to everyone.

You can have big or small - sizes range from Viking River Cruises' 189-passenger Viking Legend to Royal Caribbean International's 5,400-passenger behemoth Oasis of the Seas - Italian style courtesy of Costa and MSC Cruises, or go green with Celebrity Cruises' next Solstice-class ship - that's the one with real grass on top. Anyone for croquet?

Just as I was posting comments from P&O Cruises head of brand marketing Philip Price about the changes on Ventura, my friend Phil Nuttall, the boss of specialist agency Cruise Village, was giving his own take on how things have improved after a cruise in the Caribbean this month. He was last on the ship in June last year, just two months after it launched.

His report is very detailed but the overall verdict is that the ship really has settled down and is delivering great cruises.

It's an interesting read, but what really caught my eye was Phil's report about the open day in the atrium, where passengers were able to try to spot a rogue bag on the security scanners, try their hands at making beds, even have a go "driving" Ventura on a ship simulator.

It sounds great fun but apparently only happens occasionally. I'm keeping all things crossed for my cruise to Norway in May. I've always fancied myself as Captain.

Remarks on Travelmole show Costa's new partnership with no-frills carrier Ryanair has gone down like a lead balloon in some quarters.

There are questions about Ryanair's ability to deliver passengers to the port in time - on a cruise-only deal the ship is not under any obligation to wait for guests (no matter who the carrier) - and fears about the high price clients will pay for baggage.

I have never flown with Ryanair and freely admit I have no intention of doing so because I hate the whole low-cost model of having to pay for everything as a separate item. I like to know the price so I can decide if it's OK or not. Easy.

There is also the small issue of having to get to Stansted Airport on the nightmare-ish M25, when British Airways' wonderful Terminal Five is less than 30 minutes away.

But I gather from figures given to me by Sinead Finn, Ryanair's director of commercial revenue, that a lot of people do fly with Ryanair.

Whether they enjoy the experience or not is another question of course, and I guess they don't from all the negative remarks I've heard about the airline. But they go anyway. On that basis, people should have no issue about flying with Ryanair to join their Costa cruise.

Then there is the issue of luggage. Most cruise passengers do like to take the kitchen sink, it's true. But hang on. Costa's UK managing director Marco Rosa made it clear they were after professional young new-to-cruise passengers - people not wedded to their traditions (or their sink) - but who presumably can afford to pay for hold luggage if necessary, especially if the flights really are so cheap.

Alternatively, why not manage on their 10kg hand luggage for a week? I regularly go on a week's cruise with hand luggage only and look smugly at people struggling with bags they can't carry and getting nervous when their luggage does not appear on the carousel.

Of course a lot does depend on the cruise line. Remember, this is not formal P&O, but informal Costa. When I was on Costa Victoria in the Gulf last month, Gala evening (the formal night equivalent) brought out some people wearing black tie, others in slacks and jumpers.

All mixed and mingled together - and there were no dirty looks or chav accusations by the black-tiers. Simply, on Costa if casual floats your boat, that's fine by everyone. And if that's what you like, hand luggage works just fine.

I'd just rather carry my bags onto a BA flight.

A poll by Co-operative Travel into the best cruising companions got me thinking. Which celebrity would I like to go on a cruise with?

The poll of 650 holidaymakers was broken down into four sections - celebrity men and women the men would most like to cruise with and then the same two categories for the ladies. An interesting idea, but clearly people were given a list to choose from as the same celebs appear on each, just in a different order.

And what a random selection of names they were given, including Terry Wogan, Tom Cruise, Carol Vorderman, Rod Stewart. With one exception I would have had to reply "none of the above".

Daniel Craig, aka 007, came out top for the ladies. No surprise there. Stephen Fry topped the men's chart for the top male celeb. Right.

The men chose Myleene Klaas as their favourite female cruise companion - but no I don't think it had anything to do with her godmothering Carnival Splendor in Dover last year (unless it was the moment her dress did a Marilyn Munroe) - while the ladies went for Julie Walters.

All this was done to celebrate old new figures from the Passenger Shipping Association (they have been bandied about enough already, let's face it) that almost 1.5 million Brits took a cruise last year - an 11% increase on 2007. Nice one.

The question from Jill on Cruise.co.uk must rank up there with the cruise directors' favourite daft passenger comments, among them "do these stairs go up or down?" and "does the ship run on mains electric?"

She claims to be terrified of water and therefore is dreading having to go in the sea during the safety drill. I'm pleased to see most of the respondents have a good sense of humour. Do take a miute to read them. They made me smile and brightened up my early morning start!

Costa Cruises is inviting travel agents from around the world to come up with names for its next two ships, which I shall call numbers 16 and 17, for obvious reasons, launching in 2011 and 2012.

Has Costa run out of ideas? It says not. It's just a fitting token of thanks to the trade for helping to sell their cruises.

The three travel agents whose ideas are judged best will be invited to number 16's naming ceremony in 2011.

They will also get a Costa workstation, which comprises a computer with two screens, wifi keyboard and mouse, office chair, desk lamp and limited-edition pen holder, and the one agent who submits the winning pair of names will be invited on number 16's maiden cruise.

One or more pairs of names (because there are two ships, remember) can be submitted online any time before June 5.

In case it helps, the ships will be 114,500 tons and carry 3,780 passengers, and based on past experience I would suggest a name beginning with Costa. That's it. You're on your own now.

These days you need to take out a second mortgage to sail with the former no-frills easyCruise, where things have changed so much that almost the only thing you'll recognise is the name.

The ship is decked out in stylish grey, the interiors look stylish and modern and the top cabins look comfortable if a little minimalist (note no carpets; makes it easier to clean), with not even a hint of orange.

As for the prices. Let's just say I had to phone easyCruise to make sure I wasn't somehow making a mistake.

Fancy a four-night cruise around Greece and Turkey from May 25-29? The lowest category inside cabin will set you back £1,136 for two people. It's nothing to do with the fact you're booking at short notice either. September 7-11 costs the same. If you go for the top Panoramic Suite it's £2,950 for two people. That's nearly £369 per person per night.

Three-night Greek Island and Turkey cruises are more affordable. You can get an inside cabin from £634 for two people. But you have to cruise in October.

In comparison, four nights cruising from Dover to Zeebrugge, Cherbourg and St Peter Port in Guernsey in an outside cabin on Holland America Line's new ship Eurodam in July costs from £559 per person (the insides have sold out). A balcony suite is from £1,029 per person, or £258 per person per night.

EasyCruise Life is looking very nice, its small size means it can get into the smaller Greek Islands and you are guaranteed sun in Greece, but I can't help feeling Holland America offers the better deal - a newer ship with speciality restaurants, a big spa, live talks and cookery demonstrations. And there are no flights either.

So whatever happened to the cheap-and-cheerful easyCruise, I asked sales and marketing director Paul Ellerby. The answer - apart from the fact they need to make money - is that they are now selling mainly through operators and wholesalers, so prices include commission.

Ellerby says in 2008, 80% of sales were direct and 20% through the trade; for 2009, he expects more than 50% to be through the trade.

Prices also now include food and housekeeping. When easyCruise launched, you just paid for a cabin (but rooms were cleaned between cruises). For 2008 it moved to optional half-board and housekeeping; now you have no choice.

There are also more mod-cons on the ship, with minibars and TVs in the suites, as well as lots of shore excursions, spa packages, beauty packages and drinks packages. In fact, once on board you can spend, spend, spend, just like on any other cruiseline.

For 2009, the line has scrapped seven-night cruises and is instead only selling three and four-day mini breaks from Piraeus or Kusadasi, targeting older people - the average age last year was 39, up from 32 when easyCruise was sailing the French and Italian Rivieras - who want to go Greek Islands sightseeing as part of a larger holiday.

In fact, Ellerby said in September and October last year more than 50% of passengers on the seven-night cruises were more than 50 years old.

Given the prices, which will not appeal to bright young things with a pack on their back, I'm really not surprised.

This has to be the perfect cruise for any budding Picassos out there. A seven-night Nile cruise-cum-painting holiday with Sherree Valentine Daines, billed as the face of Modern British Impressionism.

She will be giving painting lessons each day and be on hand to offer help and guidance to passengers trying to capture the scenes from the riverbank on canvas. There will also be a programme of daily excursions.

I can just about manage to paint a wall - one colour you understand! - so for me the best bit of this trip is that you'll be on a dahabiyya, a wooden sailing boat built to resemble vessels used in the 19th century by aristos doing the Nile tour.

I cruised on one a while back and they are superb. They have just six double cabins, hug the river bank as they sail, tie up away from the unattractive big boats ploughing up and down the Nile and the service is wonderful.

The cruise, departing October 18, is available from Bales Worldwide from £2,295 per person, which includes flights and transfers, all meals and drinks on the boat, sightseeing and painting lessons. See your travel agent, call Bales on 0845 057 0600 or visit the website.

If you go down to your travel agent today, you're sure of a pleasant surprise.

For three days only, Norwegian Cruise Line is giving away thousands of dollars in on-board credit to anyone booking 2009/10 cruises in the Caribbean, Alaska, Europe, South America, Panama Canal and Canada and New England.

The only requirement is that bookings be made through agents.

You'll get $50 per stateroom for a three to five-night cruise, $100 for a six to nine-night cruise and $200 for cruises of 10 or more nights. The credit can be redeemed against shore excursions, spa treatments or dining.

Itineraries in the three-day sale include a 14-night Mediterranean Escape from Southampton on Norwegian Jade departing July 12 2009 that costs from £1,039 per person, and a 12-night Baltic Capitals cruise round-trip from Dover on Norwegian Jewel departing on 9 July 2009 from £1,119 per person.

Here's a river cruise with a difference from Bales Worldwide - eight nights sailing down the Rajang River in Sarawak, Borneo, in the footsteps of British explorer Redmond O'Hanlon.

The Into Borneo Expedition Cruise, on the 30-cabin Orient Pandaw, will take you through the region's rainforest with the chance to go jungle trekking and exploring up the Kanowit River on a long boat.

You'll visit a traditional long house, where the Iban tribes live, a rattan workshop, deer farm, pepper plantation and the Brooke Raj Fort Emma, built by the Brooke family, who ruled Sarawak for 100 years. It is now part of Eastern Malaysia.

The cruise is new to Bales this summer and costs from £1,765 per person for departures in July and August, including flights, accommodation, full board on the cruise, English-speaking guides and a full sightseeing programme. Call 0845 057 0600 for more information

When a person from Disney asks you to welcome an unexpected guest, it can mean only one thing: Mickey is in town.

Sure enough, the world's most famous mouse entered the tent set up at Dover's cruise terminal one for the UK Cruise Convention in Dover yesterday, and pranced down the aisle, cuddling agents and posing for pictures on the way.

It was a fitting finale for Disney's Peter Welch, a man with a very long title, who had been telling us all about Disney Cruise Line - namely the fact that Disney Magic will be cruising from Dover next year and that the company is getting two new ships, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Could it be they sent Captain Mickey to Dover to do work his magic because they have just realised they need to get the British market on board to fill the new vessels? Surely not.

The first day of the cruise convention started with a tour of Holland America Line's Prinsendam, a lovely little ship with room for just under 800 passengers and a rather old-fashioned and cosy feel.

I was treated to lunch in the Pinnacle Grill - main course, half a cow, but oozing with taste - and was interested to hear Holland America has reduced the price there from a "do you think we should" $30 per person to a "we can't afford not to" $20. If you are ever on a HAL ship, believe me, you really can't afford not to.

I learned lots of new things at the conference yesterday - that HAL has created a new category of Lanai cabins that have floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors onto the promenade deck (a great way of adding "balconies" - and you even get your own sunloungers reserved outside the door), that British housewives spend half their leisure time online, that women form relationships with websites (I am the only one who finds that a little worrying?) and that John Heald, moderator for the day, is senior aerobics instructor with Carnival.

OK, so that was a joke as anyone who knows John will know, but it was his joke. Actually he's Carnival's number-one cruise director and an ace blogger. Do check out the website if you've never seen it, but ladies please, do not form a relationship with it.

The island of St Helena, where Napoleon was exiled, is remote enough, but in January 2011 the RMS St Helena, the cargo-cum-passenger ship that is its lifeline - it's the only way in and out of the island so everything the Saints need has to arrive on the Royal Mail Ship - will be making a return visit to Tristan da Cunha.

Tristan is 1,320 miles south of St Helena, itself 1,200 miles off the west coast of Africa, and said to be the world's most remote inhabited island, home to just 272 people. The RMS St Helena was last there in February 2006 and has no plans to be back other than this one time, so this really is a bit of a one-off trip.

The 20-day Tristan da Cunha voyage departs Cape Town on January 25 2011. It will spend three nights at Tristan and then sail on to St Helena, an overseas territory of the UK, for two nights, returning to Cape Town on February 13.

Prices start from £2,716 per person including all meals on board the ship (passengers stay on board at Tristan) but excluding international flights. Call 020 7575 6480 for more information and to book.

In a variation on the buy one get one free deal, casual cruise line Ocean Village has a buy two, get a third and fourth free offer this autumn.

Put another way, when two people book a cabin, a third and fourth cruise for nothing. Not a bad offer when you think about it - although of course you do need to get on with numbers three and four as they have to share your cabin.

It means that four of you can cruise on the seven-night Emperors and Espresso cruise from Palma on September 15 for just £387 each (total price £1,550, divided by four) - and that includes flights, transfers and all meals.

There is one small catch - you do need to make up you mind quickly and book in July. See you travel agent, call 0845 4567 888 or the website for more details.

Holland America is adopting an eco-friendly Express Docs ticketing system on September 1, cutting out the need to send passengers bulky ticket holders whose sole purpose is to make a corporate statement on behalf of the individual cruiseline. Plastic? Oh dear. Leather-look? Must be good.

Under the new system, agents (or passengers if you book direct) will be notified by email that Express Docs have been issued. The email has a link to a website to complete an on-line check-in form. Once done, an express boarding pass and e-ticket can be printed.

Everyone booked on the cruise then has to turn up at the port with a print-out of the boarding pass and at least one e-ticket per cabin. Luggage tags, to attach to bags so they can be delivered to the correct cabin, will be available at the port.

The only exception is those booked on a Grand Voyage or Alaska CruiseTour, who carry on as now.

But how simple is all that? And eco-friendly, with no wasted paper and no fuel expended getting documents delivered around the country.

This sort of change is long overdue - after all I can check in for a British Airways flight on line and just turn up at the airport with a passport and printed boarding pass; so why not for a cruise?

Instead, invariably before each cruise I receive a fat wallet stuffed with mountains of paper, which usually goes straight for recycling as I really don't need to be told how to get on and off a ship, what to wear or how to pack. Yes I cruise a lot, but I suspect most people can work these things out for themselves. As for luggage labels. How many bags do they think one person needs for a seven-night cruise?

At the end of the day, all you need to take is the cruise ticket and that's what goes in my bag.

I have to say Lindblad Expeditions, with whom I've just cruised in Svalbard, is the worst culprit, not only sending me reams of paper about the cruise, much of it useless as it applied to the American travellers, but then sending the exact same information in a separate wallet and in a separate envelope to my daughter. And both had to come across the Atlantic.

Some have already chaged to a more eco-friendly system, but ironically, the best cruise lines often earn their stars because they forgot to send me the paperwork!

In May, my family and I turned up in Southampton for a cruise on Ventura without a ticket (I actually thought it was part of the excursion booklet so hadn't bothered chasing) or any luggage labels. Guess what? There was a man at a desk in front of the terminal handing out labels and they managed to check me and my family in without a ticket.

Just shows, it can be done. So let's see if they can't all start to do it.

This was the sight greeting onlookers in Southampton yesterday - Celebrity Cruises' new ship Celebrity Equinox arriving in the port for the first time.

The ship will be staying here until July 31, allowing travel agents, consumers and the press to crawl all over it (not too literally I hope, although I'm sure there will be plenty of bubbly doing the rounds to celebrate the occasion) and get a taste for 2010, when sister ship Celebrity Eclipse, still under construction, will be based in Southampton and sailing for the British market.

On July 29, while still in Southampton, it will be named by Nina Barough, who founded the Walk the Walk breast cancer charity. Two days later it's off to the Norwegian fjords for its maiden cruise and then it'll be leaving the UK and taking up its summer residence in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome.

The ship cost £700 million to build, weighs 122,000 tons and carries 2,850 passengers, and has a half-acre lawn on top. I'm on board on Sunday and again for the naming next week and am looking forward to seeing whether the grass has greened up at all since my last visit, for the conveyance out of the shipyard and down the River Ems in Germany.

This might be of interest for anyone yet to book a cruise this year.

Norwegian Cruise Line has launched a sale offering not just a few healthy savings on cruises themselves, but also up to $150 credit to spend on board as well.

It's not a huge amount given the poor exchange rate it's true, but as a supermarket insists on telling us, "Every little helps".

The sale goes on until the end of August, but you'll have to move quick to get the spending money as that's only available when you book through a travel agent before the end of July. And that's on Friday!

There are sale tags on cruises in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Panama and South America, with up to £830 per person off a 14-night Caribbean Panoramas sailing in December from Miami. The price now is from £1,479 excluding flights.

You can also get £370 per person off a seven-night Western Med cruise in November from Barcelona. It's now £539 per person, or £77 a day and for that you get the flight as well.

Nothing to do with having a miserable weather or being feasted on by mozzies in the Scottish highlands and islands, but everything to do with Hebridean International Cruises, which went into administration earlier this year.

Mundy Cruising, one of the top creditors of the failed company, has put together a top-10-tips booklet ostensibly to help Hebridean fans get over the demise of their favourite cruiseline but to try to win a few bookings from people who missed their cruise when the line collapsed.

Tips three to nine are suggestions of other small cruiselines that might appeal, starting with Noble Caledonia's Island Sky, a sister ship to Hebridean Spirit, which Hebridean International sold off just before its demise.

Next comes Orion Expedition Cruises, an Australian-based cruiseline that sails around the Kimberley region of Oz, Papua New Guinea and Antarctica. Coincidentally, an Australian couple of my cruise in Svalbard had been on Orion and loved it.

With luck I'm meeting the lady behind Orion in a couple of weeks so I'll be able to tell you more about it.

Others selected by Mundy include Cruise West, Yachts of Seabourn's three small sisters, Viking River Cruises, Windstar Cruises two 147-passenger ships and SeaDream Yacht Club.

Interestingly, the one cruiseline not mentioned is the phoenix-like Hebridean, which was acquired by All Leisure Group, lock, stock and one ship, Hebridean Princess, and renamed Hebridean Island Cruises.

The tiny Princess, with room for just 49 passengers, is still cruising the Scottish islands from Oban, offering cruises with drinks, excursions and gratuities included in the price.

Personally the Princess itineraries aren't as interesting as those on the Spirit, which sailed to some exciting and exotic parts of the world, but surely it's still an option for anyone in need of a Hebridean fix?

If anyone doubted the continued interest in cruising, consider these two events being held in honour of holidays at sea over the next few months.

National Cruise Week is from September 20-27, when agents up and down the country will be running special promotions and holding cruise events.

A perfect time for anyone who is not sure to find out more and for everyone to book their cruise.

Then in March 2010, the Cruise show is back after an hugely successful debut in 2009.

It's on March 27-28 and this time it's being held at London's Olympia in Kensington with new attractions including a rock-climbing courtesy of Royal Caribbean International, and a Blue Guide Wall, where cruise lines can post offers and visitors can put up reviews.

There'll be expert advice for regular and first-time cruisers, and a Champagne bar and casino - playing with show dollars - so you can start to feel as you really are already at sea!

Royal Caribbean had a terrific show last year, which is no doubt why it is back, but more than 20 cruiselines are already signed up including Celebrity Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises and Cunard.

Tickets cost £6 in advance or £8 at the door. Book here or call 0871 230 7147.

An Epic transatlantic. Sounds terribly grand doesn't it, but actually it's a transatlantic crossing like any other - it just happens to be on NCL's new ship Norwegian Epic.

Did I say like any other? Well not quite, because usually when you book a transatlantic you know the date and price.

Not with NCL, who have announced neither date nor price, nor even the itinerary. The only clue is that the ship has to get from the STX Europe shipyard in St Nazaire, France, where it is being built, to Miami, from where it will be sailing, in time for a first Caribbean sailing on July 17 2010.

So if you're free in late June/early July next year and fancy being among the first on board, ask your agent to get your name down now, either by calling 0845 201 8900 or registering your details online.

When to book your cruise is one of those million-dollar questions. Do you book as soon as the cruise is announced and get a decent early-booking discount or wait until the last minute in the hpe of a better deal.

It's a question that has been taxing Mr Walsh, one of Reader Offers' clients after he went on Queen Mary 2. He had a great cruise but was "disappointed" to meet others on board, in the same type of cabin, who had booked late and paid several hundred pounds less than he and his wife and received $200 on-board credit into the bargain.

He asks Reader Offers' managing director Peter Beadles when he should book the Queen Victoria cruise he wants to do next year, which is almost unanswerable. There may be some great late deals, but who knows? And what's the use of a great deal anyway if it's for a cruise you don't want or an inside cabin when you want a balcony?

But now Saga has come to the rescue of people like Mr Walsh with a new price promise. If the price of a cruise comes down, the lower price will also apply to everyone, including those already booked. Saga also promises there will be no fuel or currency surcharges once a cruise is booked.

It's about as fair as it gets, but not a huge help for Readers Offers, as Saga sells direct to its clients, not through travel agents.

Maybe others could follow its lead though? It would make it so much easier for Peter and I to give proper advice to people who ask - and get those early bookings rolling in.

I know I've used the heading before, but it's happened again. Celebrity Cruises' new ship Celebrity Eclipse is being delivered earlier than expected so they've squeezed in another cruise.

It happened with Celebrity Equinox, P&O's Ventura, Princess' Ruby and Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, which was due to set off on its maiden cruise on December 12 this year but now has its first sailing on December 1.

As the Eclipse extra will be the first cruise with paying passengers, it is what most people would class as the maiden, but as other folk have booked specially to be on that - a four-nighter to Cork - and would be a little upset to find their maiden pulled from under them, so to speak, this one is being sold as a "taster" cruise.

It really is just a taste - three nights, Southampton to Le Havre and back from April 26 to 29. Prices for a balcony cabin start from £399 per person, which is a really great price.

Before that expect several days of celebrations and ship visits in Southampton, as well as the naming ceremony, to welcome the vessel to what will be its home port for summer 2010. It's expected to arrive the week commencing April 19 so clear your diaries.

Tempted to see what all the cruising hype is about or just planning to book your next holiday at sea? Then get on down to your local travel agents next week and see what offers they have in store.

From September 20-27 it's National Cruise Week - seven days when the cruiselines go mad and offer some amazing prices.

* More than £650 off the cost of a nine-night Caribbean cruise with Windstar departing November 21 2009, bringing the from price down to £2,087 per person including flights. And if you book next week you'll also receive £300 credit to spend on board.

* Get a free cabin upgrade with Carnival Cruise Lines by quoting "National Cruise Week" at the time of booking. Prices from £969 for nine nights in the Caribbean including flights.

* Orion Expedition Cruises is offering 20% off a six-night Great Barrier Reef voyage departing November 20 2009.

* Save £300 per stateroom when you book a Princess Cruises' Mediterranean voyage on Ruby Princess. Prices from £1,149 per person including flights and transfers.

* Save £1,000 per couple on Viking River Cruises Imperial Jewels of China cruise. Prices from £2,135 per person including flights, transfers and excursions.

The list goes on and on, and your cruise agent will have them all. But don't think too long. Remember it all ends September 27.

It really was a quick look on Saturday, when Oceania Cruises' Regatta was in Dover for a turnaround - on at 10.45am, off at 2.30pm, but long enough to remind me why I like these former Renaissance ships just in time for Wednesday, when I will be cruising on one of her sisters - Princess Cruises' Royal Princess in the Black Sea.

But more of that later.

It's an exciting time for Oceania, which has the three sisters (the others are Insignia and Nautica, also former R vessels) but is also launching a new ship, Marina, next year. Or at least that's the plan, but I gather there is some debate going on as to whether it's a good idea to launch at the end of 2010 when people's minds are on the festive seas, or wait and come out in early 2011, when hopefully they are thinking of holidays - and specifically cruising.

Whichever it is, as Marina will be almost twice as big as the sisters, holding 1,252 passengers instead of 684, you can expect to hear a lot more about Oceania in the coming months as sales step up a gear.

Back to Regatta....

I was on the ship with several agents and we managed to see a standard balcony cabin - OK but quite small - and a Penthouse (pictured below), which is a real step up in size and presentation and come with a butler. Apparently these are popular with passengers who usually travel with the ultra-luxury lines because they are a good size, but quite a bit cheaper.

Well they should be because you don't get the free drinks (alcoholic and soft), although for summer 2010, Oceania is including soft drinks and bottled water in the price.

Bernie Carter, Oceania's UK sales and marketing director, said the standard suites on Marina will be close in size to the Regatta penthouses, which should make them very attractive to the ultra-luxury market.

The picture below is one of the Owners' Suites, a nice-sized room at the aft end of the ship, and below that the speciality restaurants, Toscana and Polo Grill. Every passenger gets an "allowance" in terms of the number of times they can eat in these restaurants, but they can book more evenings if there is space. There is no charge.

Bernie tells me they are just trialling a new system that will allow passengers to book the restaurants on line. "We don't like queues," he said, as we passed passengers who had just come on board standing in line to make their reservations. I can see why.

Marina, incidentally, will have these two speciality restaurants and two new ones - Red Ginger for pan-Asian dishes and Jacques, for French "comfort" food. Not sure exactly what that is but I'm thinking (probably incorrectly) cassoulet and tartiflette. These will also be free.

One of my favourite things on Regatta was these double loungers - they looked so inviting in the Dover sunshine (yes, the sun does shine there now and then). I also loved the library - it's where you get the real country house-style feel these ships are known for.

I have to admit the food was pretty good too - and they did a great job pulling out all the stops when it transpired the ship did not have my dietery requests after all.

"The best food at sea" is how Bernie describes it. But then he is a bit biased.

If you're able to cut and run in the next month, have a quick look at Ocean Village. It's offering a seven-night cruise in the Med departing from Palma, Mallorca, on October 27 from £599 per person.

That's just £85.50 a day, and you get a flight, transfers and all 24/7 buffet dining food thrown in as well. Oh, and if you can take the kids, they'll look after them for free as well.

If you'd rather hang on for a post-Christmas get away, Oceean Village has 14 nights in the Caribbean departing Barbados on December 30 from £1,329 per person.

That's just under £95 a day and again includes flights and transfers, plus the chance to visit loads of favourite islands in the sun as well - Tortola, St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, Tobago, Isla Margarita , St Lucia, Grenada and St Vincent.

These prices are for online bookings, but you never know what your travel agent might have in store, especially with National Cruise Week starting on Sunday, so check that out as well.

The winning cruiselines might love it and it might make a story for the papers but at least one person is totally unimpressed with the latest results from Cruise.co.uk's regular survey of the "best" cruise lines and their ships, food, entertainment and service.

"...it must be said that some of its results are highly dubious. For example, for "best cruise line" the ranking was Cunard, Thomson, Ocean Village and Princess. No mention at all of Crystal, Regent, Seabourn or Silversea. Since when did Ocean Village become the third best cruise line in the world (or even in the UK)?"

Mark Tre of Cybercruises, who wrote this, points out, as I have in the past, that the scoring is highly flawed, biased in favour of the lines that atttract the most reviews.

Take that best cruise line category, where Cunard came top, Thomson second and Ocean Village and Princess were equal third.

"How anyone might accept that Thomson could ever be the second best cruise line and that Ocean Village ties with Princess for third is ludicrous .... surely "best" is not the way to decribe these results. "Most popular" would be more like it."

I have to say I totally agree. Or maybe be even more specific - "most popular among the Brits".

The piece continues, dissecting the best food, best service and best accommodation categories, and finally concluding that the whole thing is a publicity exercise for Cruise.co.uk.

Surprise surprise.

But it succeeded. Even the Telegraph and Travel Weekly (not written by me!) ran with the story. And let's face it, so did Mark Tre, whoever he might be!

Here's an offer us tip-hating Brits just can't refuse.

Oceania Cruises is not just cutting prices by up to 60% on selected cruises this winter but it is also paying your gratuities.

As Oceania recommends $12.50 per person per day (automatically added to the bill) plus another $4 per person per day if you have a butler, you can see this is worth quite a lot of money.

These are the cruises. You get free speciality dining, soft drinks and bottled water for these prices but no flights. The single supplement is just 25%.

* February 8 2010. Sydney to Bangkok - 21 nights from $2,793 (about £1,799) per person.

* February 22 2010. Buenos Aires to Valparaiso - 13 nights from $2,704 (about (£1,699) per person. 

* March 7 2010. Valparaiso to Rio - 27 nights from $3,375 (about £2,149) per person.

* March 1 2010 - Beijing to Bangkok - 24 nights from $3,000 (about £1,899) per person.

* April 9 2010. Hong Kong to Athens - 35 nights from $4,375 (about £2,799) per person.

All these prices include a savings of up to 60%. For more information see your local cruise travel agent, check out the the website or call Oceania Cruises on 0845 505 1920.

Orion Cruises is holding a webinar training session for travel agents about cruising in the Kimberley in Australia on October 30 at 10am. For thos not in the know, its in the north - the part of Oz featured in the film Australia.

The cruiseline will be offering 12 10-night expedition-style cruises in the region between May and September next year, sailing between Darwin and Broome, on their own ship, also called Orion. Cruise-only prices start from £5,011 per person.

To register for the training, email clare@sandraleach.co.uk.

P&O Cruises has announced the dates when its three Michelin-starred celebrity chefs, who between them have six restaurants on six ships, will be taking to the high seas.

As well as keeping an eye on the restaurants that bear their names, they will be entertaining passengers with cooking demonstrations, book signings and Q&A sessions.

The celebrity threesome includes Gary Rhodes, who has fabulous restaurants (I know because I've tried them) on Arcadia and Oriana, and who will be on four cruises, and Marco Pierre White, who has a restaurant on Ventura (I've tried that one too) and whose dishes are served in Oceana's Café Jardin's and Aurora's Café Bordeaux.

White seems to have caught the cruising bug and will be on six cruises.

Last but not least there's Atul Kochhar, who will have the first Indian restaurant at sea. I've not tried that yet as it's on Azura, which doesn't launch until next April but if it's anything like his restaurant in London, Benares, it'll be a winner.

Kochhar is on five cruises, so another one who just can't keep away (but one date is in 2011)!

Want to sail with a celebrity? Here are the dates they'll be on (subject to change). For more information see your local cruise travel agent or go to the P&O website

Gary Rhodes' cruise dates

* Arcadia: 15-night cruise to Norwegian fjords departing June 19 2010.

* Arcadia: 13-night Mediterranean cruise departing November 2 2010.

* Oriana: 12-night cruise tothe Baltic departing July 11 2010.

* Oriana: 7-night cruise to Iberia departing August 27 2010.

Marco Pierre White's cruise dates

* Aurora: 12-night cruise to the Canary Islands departing April 19 2010.

* Oceana: 14-night Mediterranean cruise departing May 15 2010.

* Ventura: 7-night Iberia cruise departing June 5 2010.

* Ventura: 14-night Mediterranean cruise departing July 3 2010.

* Oceana: 14-night Mediterranean cruise departing October 2 2010.

* Ventura: 14-night Caribbean cruise departing October 22 2010.

Atul Kochhar's cruise dates

* Azura: 16-night Mediterranean cruise departing April 12 2010.

* Azura: 16-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise departing July 23 2010.

* Azura: 12-night Canary Islands cruise departing August 8 2010.

* Azura 7-night Iberia cruise departing September 21 2010.

* Azura: 15-fly night Caribbean cruise departing February 4 2011.

It's been an exciting few days for Royal Caribbean as the cruise line finally took delivery of Oasis of the Seas and the 220,000-ton mega-ship set sail for its new home in Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

The ship has been six years in the making and during that time has managed to stir up plenty of mixed emotions - "too big", "too many people", "ugly", "can't wait", just plain "wow".

Whichever category you fit in, and of course it won't suit everyone, you have to admit Royal has come up with something truly spectacular.

The Central Park with real shrubs, a zipwire, inside balcony cabins, a bar that thinks it's a lift, an AquaTheatre, hundreds of places to eat - well OK, 20, but it's still a huge number. And then there's the FlowRider and rock-climbing wall that are already on other ships, but Oasis has two of each, and also an ice-rink.

I'm lucky enough to be going to be cruising on Oasis in November, just before the naming ceremony on November 30, and am already feeling exhausted just thinking of having to get around to see all these things.

But that's a while yet. More immediately, it seems Oasis will be making a technical stop at in Southampton on Monday at about 12.30pm to off-load people not needed for the transatlantic crossing.

I remember Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean Cruises chairman and chief executive officer, saying a while back that this was on the cards and that no, I would not be able to go on board to have a look. Well it was worth a try! But anyone in the area at the ETA specified should be able to see the ship, even if it is not docking. 

If that fails, there is still room on the inaugural seven-night Eastern Caribbean sailing - and therefore I'm guessing on most departures thereafter - for anyone who wants to make history and be among the first to cruise on the largest cruise ship in the world.

Your local travel agent will be able to help or click here to book on line.

Christmas is coming and there are some amazing bargains out there for anyone who can get away at fairly short notice.

Here are some of the latest "can't afford to say no" prices I've received in the past few days.

* Gills Cruise Centre: 15-day Caribbean Christmas cruise from Barbados on P&O Cruises' Ventura departing 18 December 2009. Balcony from £1,499 per person including flights from East Midlands. That's less that £100 a night and you get a flight and balcony in the bargain.

Or if you'd prefer to spend the new year at sea, there's a 15-day cruise on Ventura departing Barbados on January 1 2010. Better price -  from £999 per person - but it's for an inside

To book either cruise, click here or call Gills on 08456 58 23 23.

* Tropical Sky: 17-night cruise-and-stay, combining a 13-night transatlantic crossing and Caribbean cruise on Costa Cruises' Costa Mediterranea with four nights' all-inclusive at the Almond Smugglers Cove in St Lucia. Departs Savona in Italy on December 5 2009 and costs from £1,099 - less than £65 a night - including flights from the UK to Savona. To book, click here or call 0870 907 9600.

* Carnival Cruise Lines: Seven-night Southern Caribbean Christmas cruise on Carnival Victory departing San Juan in Puerto Rico on December 20 costs from £619 per person for a balcony cabin. That's £88 a night, but you have to book your own flights.

Or if you fancy trying Carnival's new ship, Carnival Dream, there a seven-nighter departing Port Canaveral in Florida on December 19 with inside cabins from £579 per person. Again, no flights though.

The Carnival prices are only available through your travel agent - tell them to look in Amadeus Cruise.

* Oceania Cruises. OK, not Christmas and not quite so cheap, but a great deal nontheless - a 21-night cruise from Sydney to Bangkok on Nautica departing February 8 2010 from £1,799 per person.

It doesn't say, so I'm guessing it's for an inside cabin and I know there's no flight, but that's 60% off the normal price and they'll pay your gratuities as well. There are also big savings on South American and Asian cruises. To book, click here or call Oceania on 0845 505 1920.

I wonder how many other people read the headline on yesterday's email from Cruise.co.uk, proclaiming that Disney Cruise Line was not basing a ship in Dover any more.

"Disney to base ship in Barcelona, not the UK
It turns out that Disney have decided to base at ship at Barcelona, instead of the UK. It will spend the next two summers at the Spanish port... Read more"

Due to a technical hitch, none of the links from the email are working, so I couldn't read more, and I also could not find the story on the company's website, but I did manage to get through to Disney and ask if it was true.

This is their answer:

"...we most definitely are sailing from Dover next summer, and I'm grateful for you bringing that article to my attention so I can contact them to correct it."

Disney has four 12-night cruises from Dover to the Baltic in June and July 2010 on Disney Magic. If you're booked on one, don't panic. They are still happening. If you're not, why not give it a go? It's so easy to cruise from the UK - no flights, no hassle - and how fascinating will it be to see Mickey Mouse in St Petersburg!

Reader Offers are now selling Disney cruises. Click here to find out more.

Incidentally, Disney Magic will be sailing from Barcelona next year, and again in summer 2011, when it will not be in Dover, so Cruise.co.uk was partly correct.

Norwegian Cruise Line is offering up to £300 per cabin savings for three days starting from November 10 on selected 2009/2010 Mediterranean and Caribbean sailings.

Itineraries in the sale include:

• Nine-night Canary Islands and Morocco fly-cruise from Barcelona on Norwegian Jade departing January 15 2010. Prices from £725 per person.

• 12-night Eastern Mediterranean fly-cruise from Barcelona on Norwegian Jade departing January 3 2010. Prices from £809 per person.

• 14-night Festive Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona on Norwegian Jade departing December 20 2009. Prices start from £1,317 per person excluding flights. 

• Nine-night Treasures of the Eastern Caribbean fly-cruise from Miami on Norwegian Pearl departing January 8 2010. Prices from £1,154 per person.

• Nine-night Jewels of the Western Caribbean fly-cruise from Miami on Norwegian Jewel departing January 16 2010. Prices from £1,134 per person.

The savings are available from your cruise travel agent and other departrure dates are available so do ask what else they have if these don't suit. But remember - the sale only lasts three days, from November 10-12.

Happy booking!

You can always tell when the festive season is approaching as it's time for the puns to be dusted down and given an airing.

Costa has to get top prize, with its "Costa sleighs the competition this Christmas" headline - well it certainly caught my attention, as did the prices it is offering.

* Seven nights on the Costa Luminosa sailing around the Arabian Gulf from Dubai departing December 19 (so Yule (!) have Xmas on the ship) from £559 per person - less than £80 a day on a new ship and with all food included. Flights are extra.

* If you fancy staying closer to home, there's an eight-night Spain and Portugal cruise on the Costa Serena, also departing December 19, from £649 per person. That's £81 a night and it includes flights.

For more information on Costa, see your travel agent, click here or call 0845 351 0552.

If you'd rather something to blow away the post-Xmas blues (or just want to avoid those on-board Turkey dinners) Gill's Cruise Centre has some New Year deals.

* 15-day Caribbean cruise from Barbados on P&O Cruises' Ventura on January 2 from £1,299 per person. Price is for a balcony cabin and includes flights.

* 13-day Canary Islands cruise from Southampton on Fred Olsen's Boudicca on January 5 from £949 per person - £73 a day - for an outside cabin. And you'll get £75 to spend on board as well.

* 11-day Mediterranean cruise from Genoa on MSC Cruises' MSC Splendida on January 20 from £699 per person. That's less than £64 a day for a balcony cabin and including flights.

To book click here or call 08456 582323.

Remember all the hype as National Cruise Week approached? We had stories from the Passenger Shipping Association about favourite ports. celebs you'd most like to cruise with, the great deals to be had from agents during the seven days and much more.

That was September. And what have we heard since about it? Zilch. That's despite a request to the PSA for some feedback from the event. "There isn't anything to report," is a rough translation of what I was eventually told.

I was a speaker at a meeting of Leading Cruise Agents earlier this month, talking about the benefits of PR, and asked how many of the attendees had done anything to promote themselves during National Cruise Week. Three hands went up.

Compare that to the World's Largest Cruise Night in the US in October. Travel Agent Central reports that when the books closed, the industry stood at about $45 million in sales from the massive marketing promotion, translating into agent commissions of approximately $6 million.

"Nearly 50,000 consumers attended WLCN cruise events held by a record 1,309 agencies this year. That's big - and agents have every reason to believe their cruise sales will get even bigger. It's the most reliable segment of the travel industry right now, and the cruise lines continue to enhance their offerings to attract travelers. Even your most reluctant clients may find themselves swayed by what's out there these days."

How can we be getting it so wrong?

After a fortnight on dry land since seeing Oasis of the Seas, it was nice to be back on a ship last week, even if it wasn't going anywhere.

I was on Cunard's Queen Victoria while it was tied up at the Ocean Terminal at Southampton, for the Carnival UK agent awards - an annual event when P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Ocean Village and Cunard thank all the travel agents who have supported them through the year, hand out a few plaques to the top performers and treat everyone to some well-earned bubbly and a nice lunch.

It was also a moment for Cunard's president and managing director Peter Shanks to remind everyone that there were only 306 days until Queen Elizabeth's naming ceremony in October 2010. As of today - Monday - that's 301 days. Not that anyone is counting

It was also a moment for P&O Cruises managing director Carol Marlow to give a quick plug to Azura, launching in April 2010, and announce the news that Royal Princess is to become a P&O ship in May 2011, sailing under the name Adonia.

It must seem like deja vu for Carol. It seems only yesterday I was having lunch with her on Swan Hellenic's Minerva, while it was on a visit to London, discussing the impending launch of Swan's new ship Minerva II, formerly Renaissance Cruises' prosaically-named R8.

When Carnival sold Swan, they kept the ship, sent it to Princess Cruises and named it, yes, you've guessed it, Royal Princess. Now it is to be Adonia.

If ships were human, this one would definitely be having counselling by now.

But back to the awards. There were lots of familiar names among the winners including Virgin Holidays Cruises, Gill's Cruise Centre, Cruise.co.uk, Iglu.com, Cruise Thomas Cook, Get Cruising and Hays Retail, but just two agents walked off with the top four awards.

Bolsover Cruise Club was named top independent agent for P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises. Here's general manager Derek Wilson and director Julie Straw being presented with their awards by Carnival UK chief executive officer David Dingle.

Reader Offers was named top independent agent for Cunard and Ocean Village. The company's Angela Frost and Sara Wikevand collected one award each from Complete Cruise Solution's head of sales Mark Pilkington.

Other winners:

Top multiple agent - Thomas Cook.

Cruise sales person of the year - Joanna Rigby.

Complete Cruise Solution sales person of the year -  Lucy Guy.

Waves of Wisdom agent of the year - Estelle Pitman, Wayfarers World Travel.

The launch of Oasis, the world's biggest cruise ship, Disney Cruise Line's new virtual portholes on inside cabins, Norwegian Dawn loses power and plunges passengers into the hell of no air-conditioning, news of how cruising is faring during the recession.

All big stories during 2009, but what was the most-read cruise-related news article plucked from the hundreds sent out in a daily e-newsletter to travel agents by the American Society of Travel Agents?

That a videotape caught images of a woman jumping from a Princess Cruises' ship as it sailed along the coast of Alaska.

Good to know ASTA readers are keeping their fingers on the pulse.

It's getting to that silly story time of year so I thought I'd join in on Cruise Lines with my first suggestions for a quote of the year. Feel free to submit your own.

The first two come from a story in the Wall Street Journal just as Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas was about to embark on its first seven-night cruise with paying passengers.

"You have to be on the cutting edge, not the bleeding edge, of innovation."

Norwegian Cruise Line's chief executive Kevin Sheehan commenting on the decision to cancel an order for a 4,200-passenger sister ship to Norwegian Epic last year.

"If Oasis were to ferry passengers to land by smaller boats, it would look like Normandy at D-Day."

McLeod, Applebaum & Partners cruise-industry consultant Rod McLeod, on the fact that few ports are able to handle Oasis of the Seas.

"It is important to innovate, but you have to be careful not to over-invest as that pushes up the ticket price. There has to be a trade-off between innovation and value."

Carnival Cruise Lines president and chief executive Gerry Cahill, talking about the new features on Carnival Dream and possibly referring to some other cruise line that has launched a big ship.

"Life isn't fair, get used to it."

Complete Cruise Solution (representing P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Ocean Village and Cunard) sales and customer services director Giles Hawke addressing agents at the Dover Cruise Convention in June.

The economic news throughout this year might have been dire but not enough to trouble the folk booking with Gill's Cruise Centre.

The cruise specialist says this year, 80% more customers than in 2008 have chosen to book balcony cabins. Or put another way, balconies have accounted for 36% of the company's bookings this year.

A kind of two fingers to the recession I guess, or is it just that the prices are so good they would be daft to miss out.

How about an 11-night Eastern Mediterranean on MSC Splendida from Genoa from £699 per person including flights and a balcony cabin on January 31? Or a 14-night transatlantic crossing from Barbados to Southampton on P&O's Oceana on March 19 2010, from £1,299 per person including a balcony cabin and one-way flight to Barbados?

Both deals, and more, are bookable by going to Gill's website or calling 08456 582323.

Rooms with balconies have become the cabin of choice for more and more people these days - it's why new cruise ships have so many and invariably the cruise lines report that the ships fill from the top down.

They are also addictive. It's a strange person indeed who chooses to go back from a balcony to an inside or seaview room that never enjoys a bit of fresh air.

Just think. No private place to sit outside and get away from the maddening crowds and nowhere to enjoy a glass of bubbly as the sun goes down and you bid farewell to yet another port. It's a hard life!

Christmas is a-coming - and so, finally, is Oceania Cruises new ship Marina, seen here at Fincantieri's shipyard near Genoa covered in a light dusting of snow.

The new 1,258-guest flagship will have plenty of bars and lounges and 10 places to eat, including Jacques, Oceania chef Jacques Pépin's first restaurant at sea, and Red Ginger, for Asian cuisine.

It will also have a Bon Appétit Culinary Center, for hands-on cookery lessons, Owner's Suites furnished with Ralph Lauren Home, a grand stairway and lobby area custom-crafted by Lalique and a full-service Canyon Ranch SpaClub and fitness center.

Oceania has finally admitted the 2010 launch is off and it is now scheduled for January 2011. Itineraries and fares will be announced on January 13 2010 and past passengers will get first pickings during a five-day members-only reservation period from January 13-18. Reservations will open to all on January 18.

For more information or to order a brochure, contact a travel agent, visit the website or call  on 0845 505 1920.

Cruise Critic's editor in chief Carolyn Spencer Brown must have been reading Cruise Thomas Cook's latest press release when making her 2010 prediction that cruise lines will carry on discounting into 2010.

Last week the cruise retailer hit the high streets fighting, promising a 2010 campaign where "we won't be beaten on price".

Specifically, it guarantees to match any quotation from another ABTA travel agent within 24 hours of booking or receiving a quote. It is also offering up to £500 more discount per booking and giving away a cruise a week with Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises via an in-store scratch card promotion.

Here are a few of the deals available until January 31:

* P&O Cruises - save up to £800 per stateroom and get up to £200 on-board credit. Oceana special --- on board credit on every 2010 sailing.

* Princess Cruises - save up to £1,000 per stateroom and get $200 on-board credit on Alaska 2010 sailings and selected Exotic 2010/11 sailings.

* Cunard - save up to £300 per person on all transatlantic crossings and get $10 per person per day to spend on board if you book by February 28.

* Royal Caribbean International - save up to £400 per stateroom and receive up to $200 per cabin on-board credit on selected Oasis of the Seas sailings.

* Costa - receive £400 on-board spend on selected Far East sailings on Costa Allegra and Costa Classica.

When Cruise Critic asked in its daily poll yesterday whether readers looking for extra value preferred free flights, a cabin upgrade, a two-for-one offer or on-board credit, I thought the answer was in the bag.

Well almost. Free flights or half-price cruises. I couldn't decide which. But no. An overwheming majority voted for on-board credit.

A surprise result and something for cruise lines and travel agents to consider when devising their next offers.

Here are the results:

On-board cruise credit: 42.77%

Free upgrades: 25.79%

Two-for-one offers: 21.38%

Free flights: 10.06%

Travel Weekly US carried some interesting results from a survey of travel agent members by CLIA (that's Cruise Lines International Association, the US version of the PSA).

Seems an optimistic breeze is blowing through the US trade at the moment.

The travel agents say people are booking further out - about 30% of clients are booking less than four months out, compared with 39% in 2009 - which is always a sign of confidence. Some 83% of them predicted this year's Wave booking period will be 10%-20% better than last year's.

More than 75% expect higher sales this year, with most forecasting an increase of about 15%. Just 11% expect sales to be on par with 2009.

What would the results be like if the PSA took a similar survey over here, I wonder? Any thoughts very welcome.

Cruising and bridge go together like hearts and diamonds, so it's no surprise to see that Fred Olsen has teamed up with the English Bridge Union to offer a debut EBU-sanctioned tournament at sea.

It takes place on Balmoral's 12-night Canary Islands cruise from Dover on May 3 and will be hosted by Daily Express bridge correspondent Paul Hackett and keen player, who will be giving talks and daily play updates during the cruise.

During the six days at sea - and probably during port days if I know anything about bridge players - there will be tournaments for experienced and novice players. They will earn EBU points for taking part.

These special-interest cruises are great for single people - for bridge players it's a perfect way to make friends - but I see this is also a cruise-and-walk voyage in association with Ramblers, so it will work well if any non-playing spouses fancy going along as they'll have something to do while their partners are up to their tricks.

The cruise will be visiting Madeira, La Palma, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lisbon before returning to Dover.

Prices start from £1,004 per person, plus it costs an extra £100 per player to take part in the bridge sessions (which must be pre-booked through Fred Olsen). Your travel agent will have more details, or call Fred on 01473 742424 to find out more.

What was that I was saying about the cruise lines' obsession with safety and security?

Carnival Cruise Lines has told embarking passengers they are no longer allowed to lock the luggage they hand over to porters for delivery to their cabin "to maintain a safe and secure environment".

I think it is safe to say the idea has gone down like a lead balloon with most passengers.

Aside from the fact that many dislike the thought that porters, security guards and whoever happens to be wandering by at the time is free to nose through their luggage, there is a very slightest suspicion that this is nothing to do with safety and security at all but rather is an attempt to stop all those fun-loving passengers smuggling booze into their cabins.

Here's what John Frenaye, writing in Travel Research Online, said:

"As we all know, alcohol sales are one of the top moneymakers on a cruise. And as anyone familiar with Cruise Critic knows, most of the Carnival loyalists routinely share stories on how to best smuggle booze on board."

And they say we Brits are tight because we object to the cruise line's forced tipping policies!

Frenaye also makes the point, as do Cruise Critic readers, that there is a small issue of liability here. Just who would be liable if something were to disappear from your suitcase between you handing it to the porter and it arriving in the cabin?

Not Carnival, because the porters are not their employees."Try to sue the Longshoreman's Union. Fat chance," writes pnjkeith on the Cruise Critic.

Everyone writing in response to Frenaye's comment is also unhappy, including several agents. "I've been selling Carnival for over 23 years and guess what - that will be stopping soon," writes Kenagain.

Can't help feeling this will be a decision Carnival lives to regret.

The Cruise Show 2010 will be opening its doors in just eight weeks and promises to be bigger and better than the debut event last year.

For one thing, the show is moving out of the dreaded Docklands (Excel did not excel last year as the venue became almost inaccessible when all public transport bar the buses was halted for maintenance) to the much more convenient London Olympia in Kensington.

Also, all the big cruise companies names will be there - check out the list of exhibitors here - so whether you fancy sailing the high seas or messing about on the rivers, there will be someone there to advise and help you.

And there will be plenty of fun stuff as well - Royal Caribbean is bringing a rock-climbing wall, MSC Cruises' Balinese masseurs and therapists from its Aurea Spa will be offering massages, facials and more, Fred Olsen will have virtual golf.

I'll be there again, taking part in panel discussions, along with Steve Read from Sky Travel, Cruise Critic editor Carolyn Spencer Brown, cruise writer Gary Buchanan and Douglas Ward, who writes the Berlitz cruise guides.

Experts from the cruise lines will also be there, including Jo Rzymowska, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's associate vice-president and general manager UK and Ireland, Trudy Redfern, Silversea's managing director, and John Heald, Carnival's senior cruise director.

If you love cruising, are planning to take your first cruise or just want to know what this cruising lark is all about, Olympia is the only place to be on the weekend of March 27-28. The show is open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday.

Tickets cost £6 per person bought in advance at the Cruise Show website or by calling 0871 230 7158 or £10 on the door. Under 16s are free.

Telegraph readers can also get two free tickets valid for either day by booking online or ringing the ticket hotline on 0871 230 7158 and quoting "Telegraph".

Don't forget to come and say hello. I'll look forward to meeting you.

River cruise operator AMAWaterways is giving away a free cruise to the travel agent or tour operator who comes up with the best name for the new vessel they are building to sail on the Mekong River.

This will be AMA's second river boat on the Mekong. The first, La Marguerite, launched in September 2009 but there's been such a lot of demand that now they are building a second to sail between Siem Reap in Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. It's scheduled to launch in 2011.

La Marguerite was named after French novelist Marguerite Duras, who set many of her books in 1930's Indochine. For Mekong vessel number two, AMAWaterways is keen to come up with a name that uses its trademark AMA prefix, like the boats in Europe (Amacello, Amadolce, Amalyra and so on) although it promises all suggestions will be considered.

You have until March 6 to come up with a name; the winner will walk off a luxury, seven-night river cruise for two.

Email suggestions to tas@amawaterways.com, remembering to include your name, agency name, email address and day time phone number. You can suggest as many names as you like, but they do ask you send them all on one email.

The recession might be officially over, but there's no sign of an end to the great cruise offers we've been seeing over the past year or so. Here are some to get the credit card jumping.

SeaDream Yacht Club

If you can pack fast, you can save an incredible £6,000 on an 18-night Caribbean cruise from St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands to San Juan in Puerto Rico on SeaDream I on March 5. Prices now from $6,516 (£4,200) per person cruise-only, down from $14,800 (£10,200).

Closer to home, save more than £4,000 on a seven-night June 5 Greece and Italy cruise on SeaDream II from Piraeus, the port for Athens, to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. Prices now from $3,226 (£2,080) per person cruise-only, down from $9,327 ($6,200) per person.

SeaDream I and SeaDream II each holds just 112 passengers. Drinks and gratuities are included in the prices. To book visit your local travel agent and tell them to call 0800 783 1373, quoting IBOS2010.

Oceania Cruises

Cruise the Med in luxury while saving more than £2,000 on this 14-night Venetian Rhapsody cruise from Barcelona to Piraeus, the port for Athens, on Insignia on April 18. Prices now from $3,612 (£2,300) per person cruise-only for a Penthouse Suite with a butler, down from $7,039 (£4,500).

Join the jetset on a 10-night Yacht Havens cruise from Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, to Barcelona on Nautica on August 5 and save £650 per person. Prices now from $2,139 (£1,450) per person cruise-only, down from $3,139 (2,100).

To book, see your travel agent, click here or call Oceania on 0845 505 1920.

P&O Cruises

Cruise into spring for just £74 a night on a 14-night no-fly Mediterranean voyage from Southampton on Ventura departing April 10. Prices from £1,025 per person cruise-only for a balcony cabin and including £100 per adult on-board credit.

Or why not try something new? There's a 16-night no-fly cruise on new ship Azura on May 10 from £1,475 per person cruise-only for a balcony cabin and including £100 per adult on-board credit.

To book, click here or call on 0845 3 555 333.

Iglucruise

Book an eight-night cruise from Lisbon to Oslo on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas departing April 19 from £579 per person including flights and gratuities. You can also upgrade to an outside cabins for £100 per person and to a balcony for £250. To book click here or call 020 8544 6447.

This is a story I never thought I'd write - at least not while the economy is still teetering on the brink. Or is that really still only here in the UK?

From March 22, Carnival Cruise Lines will be increasing prices for all summer sailings by up to 5%. The move has been prompted by what Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill called "unprecedented levels" of bookings between January 1 and February 22, the Wave period.

He says that's all to do with the strong support Carnival has received from agents, targeted marketing and Carnival's strategy of basing ships in a multitude of ports around the US, in easy driving distance of large swathes of the population.

The laws of supply and demand say that he is right to put up prices. Or they would if it was just Carnival in the market. But there are plenty of other cruise lines out there still offering good deals that Carnival customers can turn to if they don't like the price hike.

I imagine those lines will be looking on with interest to see if the Carnival tactic works.

It's time to get the hankies out. The very last Ocean Village cruise is going on on sale at 8am on Monday March 8.

OV is the cruise-for-people-who-don't-do-cruises brand and has built up quite a fan club among Brits who wanted a casual holiday at sea since it was created in 2003 but Carnival UK is closing it down at the end of this year.

One ship, Ocean Village Two, was sent Down Under to join P&O Cruises Australia last November as Pacific Jewel. The original Ocean Village follows in November this year and then OV will be no more.

The Fond Farewell cruise is a 23-night voyage from Crete to Singapore from October 21 to November 13, calling at Egypt, Dubai, Cochin in India, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on the way. You'll also transit the Suez Canal and cruise through Pirate Alley (the picture shows OV2 going through last year, escorted by the Royal Navy's HMS Cornwall).

Prices start from £1,889 per person including return flights and £150 per person on-board credit.

There's also a Big Goodbye cruise - 30 nights from October 14 to November 13 by adding a week sailing from Crete to Venice, Croatia and Greece before the final voyage to Singapore. Prices start from £2,199 per person including flights and £150 on-board credit.

Instead of the £150 on-board credit, you could opt for a free night in Singapore and £75 spending money, or two free nights and no on-board credit. If you want a third night in the city it'll set you back just £75 per person.

These final sailings are all focused on adults so there will be no children's facilities available on the ship from October 21.

Demand for the final cruise is expected to be high so get your dialing finger at the ready at 8am on March 8 or save yourself the angst and ask your travel agent to make a booking for you. Call 0845 358 5000 or click here for details. 

The top is the ultra-lux lines Yachts of Seabourn and Silversea, which have released some very tempting offers.

The bottom is Louis Cruises, which has eight-night cruises from £399 per person. You have to buy a flight as well with these guys, but with a full-board cruise at under £50 a night it's still a bargain.

Yachts of Seabourn
Book a summer or autumn cruise in the Med or Norwegian fjords by April 30 and you'll get free flights and private car transfers. Here are some samples, all including flights and transfers. Don't forget on Seabourn drinks and gratuities are also included in the price.
 
* Seven-night Cote D'Azur & Spanish Isles cruise from Monte Carlo to Barcelona on Seabourn Legend departing August 14 from £2,199 per person.

* Seven-night Greece & Dalmatian Isles cruise from Pireus, the port for Athens, to Venice, on Seabourn Odyssey on September 4 from £2,499 per person

* Twelve-night Grand Norwegian Fjords cruise from Copenhagen to London on Seabourn Sojourn on September 15 from £3,199 per person.
 
To book, see your travel agent, call Seabourn on 0845 070 0500 or click here.

Silversea
Silversea is including free flights on selected Middle East cruises. These prices include the flights and transfers, and also all drinks and gratuities while on board.

* Seven-day cruise around the Arabian Gulf roundtrip from Dubai on Silver Whisper with departures on March 30 and April 6 from £2,538 per person.

* Fifteen-day cruise from Dubai to Piraeus, the port for Athens on Silver Whisper on April 13 from £4,183 per person.

To book, see your travel agent, call 0844 770 9030, or click here.

Louis Cruises
This is the no-frills end of the cruise market, perfect if you're on a budget and desperate to get away to the sun. These are all cruise-only so you'll need to book your own flights. Prices are valid until March 31.

* Eight-night Iberian Coasts cruise roundtrip from Genoa on Louis Majesty on April 1 (you can also embark in Marseilles on April 2) from £399 per person.

* Eight-day Greece and Turkey cruise roundtrip from Piraeus, the port for Athens, on Louis Cristal on April 2 from £489 per person.

* Three-night Aegean Legends cruise roundtrip from Piraeus on the Aegean Pearl or Aquamarine on April 2 from £169 per person.

To book call 0800 018 3883 or click here. 

Star Clippers must have decided a cruise on one of its sailing ships is not enough to pull in the punters, so it has launched a range of cruise-and-stay options as well.

It's a classy range, as befits this niche cruise line, and they don't come cheap, but if price is an issue, then Star Clippers is probably not for you anyway.

Choose the Cocktails and Casinos one in September and you'll have two nights mixing with the jetset in the four-star Ambassador Hotel in Monte Carlo before taking off for a three-night cruise around the French Riviera on Star Flyer. It costs from £999 per person including flights, transfers and B&B accommodaton in Monaco.

Or how about Pyramids, Pharoahs and Greek Islands on April 16, which combines two nights at the five-star Sofitel in Cairo with a nine-night cruise on Star Clipper, sailing from Safaga in Egypt, through the Suez Canal, to Piraeus, the port for Athens. That's from £1,499 per person including flights and transfers.

There's also a Spa and Cruise in the Caribbean between November 2010 and March 2011 - eight nights at La Source in Grenada and seven nights on Royal Clipper - and Where the Wild Things Are, a 14-night cruise and stay in Costa Rica from £2,599 per person.

For more details, see your travel agent, call Star Clippers on 0845 200 6145 or click here.

Was Carnival UK commercial director Nigel Esdale just trying to deflect questions when he told journalists and travel agents at the Carnival UK 2010 report last week that he wouldn't "rule out" basing a P&O Cruises ship in the Med?

It is, after all, a bit of a meaningless throwaway line.

But if it was just a throwaway remark, he might want to think again. Specifically about when Med flycruises might be ruled in, if the comments on Cruise.co.uk are anything to go by.

Harry from Hastings points out the benefits of a Med flycruise on a ship that charges sterling on board now the euro has gone sky high (or is it that the pound has plunged?), Shelledpea acknowledges there is always Thomson for a British Mediterranean flycruise but wants an Ocean Village feel on a "fairly modern ship". VinnyTurner reckons it's only a "matter of time" before a P&O ship is based in the Med.

It would be strange indeed to start Med flycruises having gone to all the trouble of closing Ocean Village but all OV's passengers have to go somewhere for their next cruise. Does it make sense for Carnival UK to let them go to Thomson Cruises or to help fill Royal Caribbean's new cruises from Palma?

And if the Brits want seven-night British cruises in the sun, as opposed to to the sun, surely that's what P&O has to give them.

Just to prove how much OV was loved, by the way, its last cruise, in October this year, went on sale yesterday but there was so much demand the system crashed and they had to take it off sale. The website says it will be going back on sale tomorrow, Wednesday, at 10am.

There must also be a limit as to how many passengers P&O Cruises can continue to embark in Southampton, especially given all the cruise lines it is up against now.

Celebrity Cruises is coming in new in this year with the classy Eclipse and MSC Cruises is moving into Southampton in 2011. Neither offers that true-Brit experience, but whose to say new-to-cruise passengers, which all these lines have to attract to fill their new tonnage, are that bothered?

The question now surely is not if P&O will make the Mediterranean flycruise leap, but when.

So now we know what "wouldn't rule out" really meant. Namely that P&O Cruises will be launching Mediterranean flycruises next summer.

Well it's more like next autumn and winter really, because in October 2011, Adonia, which joins the P&O fleet in May 2011 from Princess Cruises, where it is sailing as Royal Princess, will be based in the Med for a series of open-jaw cruises, sailing from Savona, Athens, Trieste and Naples.

Until then, the ship, which will be for adults only, will be based in Southampton, sailing cruises lasting anything from seven to 26 nights in the Med and Northern Europe.

P&O managing director Carol Marlow said the Med flycruises "will make many of our existing passengers very happy". Has she been reading my blog?

"At the same time, we hope this will attract new customers who have previously chosen a holiday in a Mediterranean resort."

Sounds to me like they are trying to attract "people who don't do cruises".

The other big change for 2011 is that Oceana will be based in Southampton year-round, braving the Bay of Biscay in winter - and taking on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas - while new ship Azura gets to bask in the Caribbean sun.

Some ships get all the luck.

It all goes on sale on April 27 and I suspect little Adonia - only 710 passengers - might start flying off the shelves so get your phoning finger ready (0845 3 555 333) or better still, see your travel agent and let them make the booking for you.

Things are shaping up for a right royal battle in Europe next summer with Princess Cruises announcing its biggest-ever programme for the Med and Baltic just days after Royal Caribbean International president and chief executive officer Adam Goldstein revealed Royal will have a record 10 ships in Europe next year.

Princess will have seven ships on this side of the pond, which they clearly feel good about.

But add that to all the Royal ships, the Celebrity ships, the MSC ships, the Costa ships, the Holland America ships, the fact Carnival will be back sailing in the Med, that Norwegian Cruise Line will have its giant Epic over here and you have to wonder whether Europe can really deliver all the passengers needed to fill all that tonnage.

Or if it can, at what kind of prices. Only time will tell.

Princess's 2011 programme marks the line's first step into the world of the mini-cruise. It's offering three-night voyages from Southampton on Grand Princess next summer, in between the usual 14-night Med cruises, to encourage bookings from passengers who have never tried the brand before.

Prices are keen - from £349 per person for an inside cabin for bookings made by June 30, or you can pay another £40 and get a balcony - so you won't have lost much in time or money if you don't like it (which is unlikely).

Two ships - Ruby Princess and Star Princess - will be sailing the 12-night Grand Mediterranean and Greek Isles cruises, and there's a new 11-night Baltic cruise on Emerald Princess (it's a 10-night cruise this year but they've added a call to Aarhus in Denmark).

Ocean Princess will be reprieving its 18-night Land of the Midnight Sun voyage from Dover, but they've added a visit to Spitsbergen - and a second departure. The ship will also be sailing seven-night cruises to the fjords and Baltic from Dover, and in the Med, as it is this year.

The 2011 programme goes on sale to Captain's Club members on April 24 and to everyone else on April 26. For more details see your travel agent.

You'll get up to $300 per couple on-board credit if you book by June 30, or up to $600 per couple if you upgrade to a balcony or suite.

Still undecided about whether you can afford to book a cruise this year? Here's a selection of this week's best deals.

* Cruise and Maritime Voyages is offering free upgrades on a six-night springtime cruise from Tilbury on April 23, visiting Rouen in France, Guernsey and the Isles of Scilly. Prices from £399 (that's just £66.50 a day) per person cruise-only. See your travel agent, call CMV on 0845 833 9798 or click here.

* Iglu Cruise has seven nights on Princess Cruises' Grand Princess sailing from Southampton to Scandinavia on May 22 from £599 - that's just £85 a night with all food included - and you'll get a free upgrade to a balcony cabin. The cruise visits Bruges, Copenhagen, Helsingborg and Oslo. Call Iglu on 020 8544 6447 or click here.

* Gills Cruise has 14 nights on P&O Cruises' Oceana, sailing from Southampton to the Med on May 1, from £799 per person for an inside cabin. Cruise calls include Gibraltar, Civitavecchia (for Rome), Barcelona and Cadiz. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

* Gills again, but this time with a 10-night cruise on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas from Southampton to the Canary Islands. Prices start from £749 per person for an inside cabin. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

* Star Clippers has a kids-sail-free offer on a one-week Turkish Riviera cruise roundtrip from Rhodes on the clipper ship Star Flyer on July 24. Kids have to be under 18 to qualify and will have to pay port taxes. Price start from £2,860 for a family of four excluding flights (saving £2,320). See your travel agent, call 0845 200 6145 or click here.

* If river cruising is more your thing, AMAWaterways is offering two free nights' in a five-star hotel in Prague with all bookings for its seven-night Castles and Rivers' cruise from Nuremberg to Trier on the Main, Rhine and Mosel Rivers. Prices start from £1,275 per person departing October 29, including daily excursions and wine with dinner but excluding flights. See your travel agent, call 0808 223 5009 or click here.

* Finally, Voyages of Discovery is offering upgrades from inside to outside cabins on selected cruises (there's one to France in August and one to Libya in October among the selection). Bookings must be made in April. See your travel agent, call 0844 822 0802 or click here.

I was unable to make it to Volendam in Holland last weekend to see Avalon Waterways' new vessel christened - I was otherwise engaged as one of the speakers at the Cruise show - but by all accounts it was a great occasion.

The ribbon was cut by godmother Measha Brueggergosman, whose previous engagement was singing at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and Avalon Felicity is now getting ready to operate a seven-night Romantic Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Basle (and vice-versa). It runs from April 11 to the end of October.

A sister to Cosmos, Avalon is one of a rash of new river cruise companies to appear on the UK market in the past 12 months or so.

Except this one has actually been around for some time, but relying on other companies to sell it here in the UK. You can now book their cruises direct or through your local travel agent.

Felicity is Avalon's 10th river cruiser, 361 feet long and with capacity for 138 passengers in 65 cabins and four suites. Most have floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors with French balconies, which means you can get air in but there's not even room enough to stand outside.

A sister vessel, Luminary launches in July.

The Romantic Rhine cruise visits Strasbourg, Rudesheim, Koblenz, Cologne and Amsterdam, and costs from £1,325 including return flights, UK and overseas transfers, daily shore excursions and wines, beers or soft drinks with dinner.

Here we go again.

Royal Caribbean International has just added yet another new inaugural cruise for its next big ship, the 5,400-passenger Allure of the Seas.

It's a four-nighter going from Port Everglades in Florida to Labadee, Royal's private island in Haiti, on December 1. Just like they offered when Oasis of the Seas launched last. Even the dates are the same.

Anyone booked on the previous maiden cruise - a seven-night Western Caribbean voyage departing December 5 (which only replaced the original December 12 inaugural last month) - has until April 30 to decide if they want to add the four-nighter to their original booking, making an 11-night holiday.

If they do, the price will be adjusted as necessary and Royal will throw in $100 onboard credit per stateroom.

For those keen to try out Royal's next behemoth, the minicruise went on sale today. Prices start from £521 per person.

Sometimes you come across an offer you just can't afford to ignore. I reckon the first three here, from Iglu and Carnival Cruise Lines, fall into that category. This week there are also some great no-fly deals and an Arctic one for would-be explorers.

Iglu Cruises has a five-night Spring Getaway from Southampton on Cunard's Queen Victoria from £399 per person, with a balcony cabin just £50 per person more - £449. You'll have an night in Amsterdam and visit Zeebrugge (for Bruges) and Le Havre in France. Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Iglu also has 14 nights from Southampton to the Norwegian fords on P&O Cruises' Oriana departing June 2 from £699 per person for an inside cabin. That's just £50 a night. An upgrade to an outside cabin costs £200 per person. Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Carnival Cruise Lines has a seven-night Western Caribbean cruise on the new Carnival Dream from Port Canaveral from £359 per person cruise-only on May 1, and there's a host of other great deals as well. But you'll have to hurry as these prices are only available today and tomorrow. Ask your travel agent to find Carnival's Pack and Go rates.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages has a six-night Norwegian fjords cruise on Ocean Countess from Hull on April 20 from £449 per person for an inside cabin or £649 per person for an ocean view. See your travel agent, call 0845 833 9798 or click here.

Gills Cruise has a 10-night Canary Islands cruise from Southampton on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas. It departs May 5 and costs from £749 per person for an inside cabin. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

It's Gills again, but this time with a 13-night Baltic cruise from Dover on Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' Braemar departing May 29, with prices from £999 per person. Call 08456 582323 or click here.

For something very different, polar cruise operator One Ocean Expeditions is offering free charter flights from Canada, worth $1,600 per person, to passengers booking a 13-day cruise through the Northwest Passage from Resolute in Canada to Kangerlussuaq in Greenland on the 122-passenger Clipper Adventurer on August 2. Prices start from US$5,590 per person excluding international flights. For more information, click here.

The last time I was on Celebrity Cruises' new ship Celebrity Eclipse I was sailing backwards down the River Ems and there was an alarming - I thought - lot of work to do to get it finished.

Fast forward six weeks to April 24 and there was the ship, in Southampton, most definitely ready, about to be named and already back from its first sailing - an unscheduled trip to Bilbao in Spain to rescue holidaymakers stranded by the ash.

"If I'd known this £500 million ship would start life as an emergency transporter, I could have saved a lot on the decoration," Richard Fain, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises, quipped during the naming ceremony.

That involved a woman on a wire delivering the ribbon to the stage. It was cut by the godmother, local yachtwoman Emma Pontin, and then threaded its way back through the ship, eventually resulting in the bottle of bubbly smashing against the funnel. Cue confetti.

More seriously, during the ceremony Fain also praised the crew for making sure the rescued holidaymakers had the time of their life during their cruise back to the UK.

He told me that when they decided to do the rescue mission - the decision took about 45 minutes apparently - they never thought of it as a PR exercise. In fact, they were more concerned about upsetting the travel agents and visitors who should have been on the inaugural they had to cancel.

But a PR exercise it became. There's certainly no prizes for guessing which line those holidaymakers will think of if they ever decide to take a cruise.

For an "emergency transporter", Celebrity Eclipse is looking pretty good. It's essentially the same as sisters Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Equinox, launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively, but nevertheless has it's own feel.

"You can't want to be cool and be cool, but this is the coolest and most sophisticated ship sailing from Southampton," Fain summed it up. He is biased, but I reckon he is also right.

Just look at these pictures of the white dining room, the entrance to the Sky Lounge and the solarium.

There are a couple of structural changes between Eclipse and its sisters, but the big news is what's been added to appeal to the Brits who will be sailing on the ship this summer, while it is homeporting in Southampton.

There are kettles in cabins, steak and kidney pud on the menu (and mushy peas apparently but I didn't see them) and they'll be turning the Sky Observation Lounge into a pub on some nights, with a bigger choice of beers, pub games and quizzes.

The other change is Qsine, a new speciality restaurant, replacing the Asan Silk Harvest. On the conveyance, we were given a taste of Qsine and I admit I wasn't inspired - not so much about the food, which tasted fine, but about the $30 per person cover charge for what was very ordinary grub.

I'm still not 100% sold on it (not even given you can eat as much as you want, which smacks to me of cheap buffets and cold carveries) but the restaurant itself is looking great.

It's one area they definitely wanted to be cool. And have succeeded.

The way the tables are laid is simple but smart and the menus are hugely expensive iPads (they cost $500 each).

Also, there are no boring things like starters, mains or bits in between. You just order as much as you want and dishes are served as soon as they are ready.

Don't they call that fast food?

Lots of cruising deals are still coming in for anyone still hanging on for a bargain. Most are for this year - with plenty of no-fly cruises from the UK in the wake of the ash fiasco - but MSC Cruises has put some spring into its 2011 launch by repeating its cruise-for-£1 offer.

Sounds too good to be true? Well it's certainly not quite as good as it seems as you only get to cruise for £1 if you're sharing a cabin with a person who has paid full brochure price. So it's actually a two-for-the-price-of-one offer by another name.

But whatever you call it, it's a good deal and not to be sniffed at. The cruise-for-£1 offer applies to more than 280 Mediterranean cruises in 2011, but you'll need to book by May 10. Flights are not included. See your travel agent or call MSC Cruises on 0844 879 4923.

There's also still time to snag a bargain in the Windstar sale, which ends on May 3. Windstar operates three sailing ships and is offering incredible savings of up to £1,958 per couple as well as free cabin upgrades on selected Wind Surf sailings in the Med. To find out more, see your travel agent, call 020 7292 2369 or click here.

Here are some of the best-of-the-rest offers.

Ventura from £91 a night
P&O Cruises has some last-minute availability on a 14-night Mediterranean cruise from Southampton on Ventura departing June 19. Prices from £1,277 per person (£91 a night) for an inside twin cabin and you'll also get £100 each to spend on board.

If you prefer a smaller ship and can go now, there's space on Aurora's 14-night Mediterranean sailing from Southampton on May 19. Prices from £1,386 - £99 a night - for an inside cabin plus £100 on-board spending money.

Call P&O Cruises on 0845 3 555 333 or click here.

Balconies for just £100
Iglu Cruise is offering a four-night mini-cruise from Southampton on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 on May 28 from £399 per person for an inside cabin. Balconies are available from £100 extra. To book, call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

60% savings from Oceania
Oceania Cruises has knocked up to £2,646 per person off the price of a 12-night Mediterranean Grandeur cruise from Monaco to Venice on Insignia departing October 29. Prices now from £1,513 per person excluding flights.

There's also £1,500 off a 14-night Footsteps of History cruise from Venice to Barcelona, also  on Insignia, departing November 10. Prices from £1,167 per person excluding flights.

Contact Oceania on 0845 505 1920 or click here.
 
Cut-price rivers
Save £250 per person on a one-week river cruise with AMAWaterways from Nuremberg to Trier along the Main and Moselle rivers in Germany on June 27. Prices now from £1,265 per person.

You can also get £250 off a one-week cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest. Prices now from £1,365. Or save £325 on a 12-night cruise from St Petersburg to Moscow on September 28. Prices now from £1,930 per person.

All AMAWaterways prices include wine with dinner but exclude flights. For more information, call 0808 223 5009 or click here.

No-fly cruises from £64 a night
Gill's Cruise Centre has a 14-night cruise on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas from Southampton on June 19 from £899 per person - that's just £64 a night.

They are also offering 13 nights in the Norwegian fjords from Dover on Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' Braemar departing June 18. Prices start from £899 per person for an inside cabin.

Finally, there a Princess Cruises voyage from Southampton - 14 nights in the Mediterranean on Grand Princess departing August 21 from £1,499 per person for a balcony cabin, plus you'll get $400 per cabin onboard spend.

Call Gill's on 08456 582323 or click here.

I stand well and truly corrected. Seems I was wrong and both P&O Cruises and Cunard have followed Fred Olsen's lead and are slapping a fuel surcharge on all cruises departing after November 1.

My thanks to Martin Hay from GoCruise, who was first to correct me, and Captain Greybeard, alias John Honeywell, who was not far behind.

John has been doing battle with the North Sea on Saga Pearl II, which I will be joining on Friday, to have my first taste of life as a Saganaut. Just hope the weather is a little kinder.

Last week I was sent a questionnaire by Cruise.co.uk asking me to pick a high street retailer, a car company and one word that best summed up various different cruise lines. Weird or what?

Seems they are collecting information for the Association of Travel Experts, to be revealed at the ACE cruise convention in Southampton later this month.

But Cruise.dot could not resist releasing some early results from the voting and it makes for some fascinating reading.

Celebrity Cruises is Ann Summers, Norwegian Cruise Line is a Skoda and Royal Caribbean is Hamleys Toy Store (not sure if that's good or not. I think of all the folk crowded in there whenever I've been - or is that the point?).

P&O Cruises is M&S, Fred Olsen is old people (no surprise there then) and Thomson is Tescos, but also branded tacky/chavvy in the word association section. That's two Ts then.

It only needs to be voted a Toyota or Trabant in the car section for a hat trick.

For the next 10 days, whenever you book a P&O, Princess or Cunard cruise with Cruise Thomas Cook that costs more than £899 per person, they'll throw in a free theatre break in London for two.

So you really can enjoy a West End show when you cruise!

You have until June 13 to make the booking and October 31 to take the break, which includes an overnight in London in a three-star hotel with breakfast.

What can you get for your £899? Here are a few suggestions:

* Twelve-night Caribbean cruise-and-stay combining three nights at the Orlando Marriott Village with a seven-night cruise from Miami on Princess Cruises' Sea Princess on October 24 from £979 per person for an inside cabin including flights.

* Seven-night Mediterranean cruise from Civitavecchia (the port for Rome) to Southampton on Queen Victoria on November 24 from £899 per person for an inside cabin including one-way flight.

* Ten-night British Isles cruise from Southampton on P&O's Oceania on July 22 from £999 per person for an inside cabin.

To take advantage of the theatre offer, see your local Thomas Cook or Going Places agent, call 0800 916 6070 or click here.

If none of those appeals, there are plenty of other offers around.

Free kids with Star Clippers
Star Clippers is trying to drum up family business this summer with a free kids' offer on its two smallest ships, Star Flyer and Star Clipper.

There are free kids' cruises in June, July and August, offering savings of from £2,320 for a seven-night cruise for family of four and bringing the one-week cruise price to from £2,860 excluding flights.

Children have to be under 18 and travelling with two adults.

Call on 0845 200 6145 or click here.

Oceania's first cut is the deepest
Oceania Cruises is offering more than £4,000 per person off a 45-night cruise from Hong Kong to Athens on Regetta on March 26 2011. Even with the discount the cruise will set you back quite a bit - it costs from £8,450 per person excluding flights. That's £187 per night - but at least you get free bottled water!

If you're looking for something more immediate, there's up to £2,646 per person off a 12-night Med cruise from Monaco to Venice on Insignia on October 29. Prices now from £999 per person but that's still excluding flights.

Oceania prices are in dollars so sterling equivalents quoted here are approximate.

Call 0845 505 1920 or click here.

Sister cruise lines Swan Hellenic, Voyages of Discovery and Hebridean Island Cruises have been brought together under a new trade-facing umbrella brand, All Discovery Cruising, which has been launched simultaneously with a video training programme for agents.

It's all designed to help agents learn more about the three cruise lines so they can give good advice to customers looking for a small-ship discovery-style voyage.

The three cruise lines each has one ship - Voyages of Discovery has the 708-passenger Discovery; Swan Hellenic the 394-passenger Minerva and Hebridean Island Cruises the 49-passenger Hebridean Princess.

The training uses video and voiceovers from the lines' sales managers to explain the difference between the three brands, including their customer profiles and price points.

All Leisure Group, which owns all three cruise lines, acquired the 508-passenger Alexander von Humboldt last year. It is currently being operated by Germany's Phoenix Reisen and will join the All Leisure fleet in 2011.

There's still no hint which brand it will join - or if it will be used to start a new cruise line. Anyone care to lay some bets?

I am told it's a tough market out there, what with the public's fear of the impending austerity measures and stay-at-home fever caused by the World Cup.

Unless you are Gill's Cruise Centre, that is. They say bookings rose as the World Cup loomed as footie fans snapped up cruises, reassured they would be able to see their favourite team in action despite being at sea because cruise lines are screening the games on special screens around their ships.

If you manage to drag yourself away from the TV, or are just looking for an excuse to get away from the footie, here are some of this week's top offers.

P&O for £71 a night
Gill's Cruise Centre has a 14-night Baltic cruise from Southampton on P&O Cruises' Azura on July 2 from £999 per person for an inside cabin - just £71 a night.

Gill's also has a 14-night cruise from Southampton to the Baltic on Cunard's Queen Victoria on July 8 from £1,299 per person for a balcony cabin.

Prefer Norway? There's a 12-night Iceland and Norway cruise from Southampton on Princess Cruises' Crown Princess on July 12 2010. Prices from £899 per person for an inside cabin.

Call 08456 582323 or click here

Round Britain
Fred Olsen Cruise Lines is offering a nine-night no-fly round-Britain cruise from Newcastle on Boudicca on September 26 from £726 per person - that's £80 a night - for an inside cabin.

See your travel agent, call 01473 742424 or click here

Marine Harmony
French cruise line Compagnie du Ponant is offering a Marine Harmony wellness cruise on mega-yacht Le Boréal sailing from Nice to Honfleur in France on June 18-27. It's all being done in partnership with Carita, which is bringing beauticians, health specialists and dieticians on board to offer advice and treatments. Prices from £2,690 per person excluding flights and transfers.
 
See your travel agent, call 0808 234 3802 or click here

River savings
AMA Waterways has £500 savings on a seven-night cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam on July 19 and 23. Prices now start from £2,750, including flights and transfers, wine with meals, free wi-fi and daily excursions.

AMA is also offering £425 per person off the price of a Russian Waterways cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg on July 30 and August 23. Prices now from £1,995 per person including flights and transfers, wine with dinner, free wi-fi and daily excursions.

See your travel agent, call 0808 223 5009 or click here 

Land of the Midnight Sun
Voyages of Discovery is offering £300 off a 15-day Iceland and Greenland cruise on its ship, Discovery, on August 6. You'll fly to Reykjavik and have a day there before cruising to Greenland and then to Dover. Prices now from £1,099 per person.

See your travel agent, call 0844 822 0801 or click here

Half price Baltic
Iglucruise has a 12-night Baltic cruise from Dover on Norwegian Sun from just £689 per person. That's half the price it was but you'll have to be able to drop everything and go as it departs June 28. Balcony upgrades are available for an extra £100.

Iglucruise also has a good deal on a 12-night transatlantic from Southampton to New York via Boston on Dawn Princess on July 14. Prices now from £799 per person for an inside cabin, down from £1,199, with balconies from £999.

Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Mediterranean summer
P&O Cruises is offering a 14-night Mediterranean cruise from Southampton, visiting France, Italy and Spain, on Ventura on July 31 from £1,358 per person for an inside stateroom.

See your agent, call 0845 3 555 333 or click here

* All offers here are subject to availability.

As part of the ACE conference finale last Saturday, Celebrity put on a small taster show for the 450 travel agents who were on Celebrity Eclipse with me in Southampton, to give them an idea of the kind of entertainment the cruise line is offering these days.

Can't say the rendition of "We will rock you" did anything for me - very much the usual cruise ship show stuff - but I was impressed with slack-rope walker (yes, there is such a thing) Peng Fei Su, who reckons anyone can walk on a tightrope but only clever people can perform on a slack rope.

He's clearly one of them and here's a pic to give you an idea of what he was doing. I couldn't help wondering how he gets on if the sea is a bit rough.

We also had someone whirling and twirling on a bungee above the audience, which was novel, and a muscle-bound duo, who balanced and leaned on each other using only their bulging biceps and rippling ribs to hold them. I've seen that type of act several times now on cruise ships but it's good for all that.

I must also mention Nick Weir, cruise director and brother of Simon, who opened the show. Like Simon, Nick has brought out all the new Solstice-class ships so I've met him many times, but I never knew he could sing - and so well.

Hurtigruten is not only sticking with Antarctica despite the impending ban on heavy fuels but expecting a rush of bookings as other cruise lines pull out because of the increasing difficulty of operating there.

From August 2011, the International Maritime Agency is banning the use of heavy fuels in the region. It means ships that want to cruise there have to empty their tanks of heavy fuel, clean them and refill them with lighter fuels such as marine gas oil.

It's an expensive operation that is expected to force the big 2,000-plus passenger ships that offer non-landing cruises to pull out of the region just because the whole operation is so expensive.

It leaves the field open for small cruise ship operators such as Hurtigruten, which has just launched its 2011/12 brochure with news that it already has advanced registrations for the 2011/12 season.

It's newest ship, Fram, is operating in Antarctica - and is small enough that you can go ashore - and then moving to the Arctic for the summer as usual.

New for summer 2011 are five-night cruises along the north-west coast of the Svalbard archipelago. Hurtigruten also has a one-off "climate voyage" between Iceland and Spitsbergen in July 2011, with lectures designed to help passengers understand global warming.

Details are in the cruise line's new Explorer Voyages brochure, available here or see your travel agent.

Ever fancied a cruise on a tall sailing ship? Then this is the moment to book as Star Clippers is offering more than £500 per person discounts on selected cruises this summer.

There's £416 per person off a seven-night roundtrip cruise around the Greek Islands and Turkey from Athens on Star Clipper on August 14. Price now from £879 per person excluding flights.

Alternatively there's £546 per person off a 14-night cruise from Athens to Malaga, again on Star Clipper, on October 14. Prices now from £1,989 per person including flights, transfers and one night bed and breakfast in a hotel in Malaga.

If time is short, there's £116 per person off three and four-night cruises along the French Riviera from Cannes on September 4, 8 and 29. Prices now from £499 for three nights and £649 for four nights, both excluding flights.

To book, contact your travel agent, call Star Clippers on 0845 200 6145 or click here.

Win a cruise

Book a cruise this month with Iglu Cruises and you could win a free cruise from Southampton on Royal Caribbean International's Independence of the Seas

Iglu has a five-night Mediterranean cruise from Malaga in Spain on Royal Caribbean International's Adventure of the Seas on November 8 from £369 per person including flights.

There's also a 12-night Canary Islands cruise from Southampton on P&O Cruises' Oriana on August 15. Prices now from £1,099 per person for an inside cabin with upgrades to a balcony from £250.

To book call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Escape with Cruise Thomas Cook

If you are free to pack and go, Cruise Thomas Cook has a seven-night roundtrip Mediterranean Discovery Cruise from Palma, Majorca, on Island Cruises' Island Escape on July 29. Prices now from £680 per person for an inside cabin including flights from Bristol.

If you fancy a break from the Med, how about a nine-night Western Caribbean cruise from Miami on Celebrity Solstice at the end of August? Prices now from £1,100 per person for an inside cabin including flights from Gatwick departing August 28.

To book, visit or visit your local Thomas Cook or Going Places travel agent, call 0800 916 6070 or click here

No kids cruise

Cruise and Maritime Voyages is offering up top £300 per person savings on a 10-night Norwegian fjords cruise from Tilbury on the adult-only Marco Polo on August 19. Prices now from £599 - less than £60 a night - for an inside cabin, or £699 for a room with a view.

To book, see your local travel agent, call 0845 833 9798 or click here.

There have been some cruise great deals around lately but this surely is the deal to top all others.

Free flights on Orion Expedition Cruises voyages in Borneo, Vietnam and the Kimberley, which is that bit across the top of Australia.

And not just on one or two departures, but loads of dates - 13 alone in the Kimberley between April and September. That's free flights to Australia. You can't afford not to book.

There are also a few two-for-the-price-of-one flight deals on Orion's cruises in Melanesia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand and the sub-Antarctic.

You have to book by the end of October. Call 020 7399 7620 or click here.

Wine offer
You've got less time to ponder with Virgin Holidays Cruises, which is giving away a case of wine worth more than £80 to anyone who books a cruise of seven nights or longer by Monday July 26.

That means you only have this weekend so get booking.

Here are a few suggestions:

* A seven-night Caribbean cruise from New York on Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Gem on November 13 from £929 per person including flights

* A 10-night holiday combining three nights' all inclusive at the Hilton Ras al Khaimah Resort & Spa (that's in one of the United Arab Emirates) with seven nights' cruising the Arabian Gulf on Costa Cruises' Costa Luminosa on November 25 from £1,299 per person including flights.

* A 14-night holiday combining four nights at the Quality inn International on International Drive in Orlando with a seven-night Western Caribbean cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Legend on January 19 2011 from £999 per person including flights.

Call 0871 781 9893 or click here.

Iglu deals
Iglu Cruise always has some great deals and its first September offers are no exception, with hundreds of pounds slashed off selected departures.

You can save £1,550 per person on a 12-night cruise from Southampton to the Med on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and get a free upgrade to a balcony cabin. It departs September 19 and prices are from £1,399, down from £2,949.

There's also £850 off a 21-night cruise from Southampton to San Francisco on P&O Cruises' Oriana on September 23. Price is now from £1,299 per person, down from £2,149, including the return flight back to the UK.

Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Drop and go 
If you're able to drop and go, Cruise Thomas Cook has some great offers for August.

* A 10-night Taste of France cruise from Harwich with Voyages of Discovery on August 20 visiting St Helier (Jersey), La Rochelle, Bordeaux, St Malo and Rouen from £999 per person.

* A seven-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise from Venice on MSC Cruises' MSC Armonia on August 30, visiting Dubrovnik, Piraeus, Argostoli (Cephalonia), Kotor (Montenegro) and Ancona from £649 per person including flights.

Visit a Thomas Cook or Going Places travel agent, call 0800 916 6070 of click here.

Fellow blogger Gene Sloan carried a story last week saying prices for cruises are rising, but fear not as there are still some great deals around.

Ultra-luxury line Crystal Cruises is offering free return flights on an 11-night New England and Canada cruise to Montreal the refurbished Crystal Symphony on October 22.

Prices start from £2,729 per person for an oceanview stateroom including gratuities and the flights, and you'll also get up to $500 per person on-board credit that can be spent as you wish - on shore excursions, on spa treatments, drinks, whatever.

Call 020 7287 9040 or click here.

I don't often get deals from Thomson Cruises but seems they have some spaces to fill in September once the schools have gone back.

There's a seven-night Mediterranean cruise from Palma on Thomson Destiny on September 11 from £809 per person. That includes flights and transfers.

If you're fed up with the Med, there's a seven-night Egypt and the Holy Land cruise from Marmaris in Turkey on Thomson Celebration on September 13 that visits Alexandria and Port Said in Egypt, Ashdod in Israel, Larnaca in Cyprus and Antalya in Turkey. Prices from £879 per person including flights and transfers.

Call 0871 231 3243 or click here.

Iglucruise is already thinking of Christmas with its deals this week.

For those who want to escape the pre-Xmas madness, there's an 11-night Canary Islands cruise from Southampton with Royal Caribbean on November 29 from £649 per person for an inside cabin, down from £979.

However, if you want to get in the Christmas spirit, there's an eight-night cruise from Southampton on Fred Olsen's Balmoral on November 29 that visits Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Amsterdam, so you can pop in on the Xmas markets. Prices from £679 per person and they'll also throw in £50 onboard credit, car parking and an upgrade to an outside cabin.

Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

Cruise Thomas Cook has a winter sun deal with Princess Cruises for anyone in Scotland - 15 nights' cruising from Barbados on Sea Princess on November 15 from £1,479 per person for an inside cabin including flights from Edinburgh and $350 onboard spending money.

See your local Thomas Cook or Going Places travel agent, call 0800 916 6070 or click here. 

Seems I am not the only one interested in the Titanic. A centenary cruise organised by Miles Morgan Travel is almost sold out - and there are still about 20 months before it sets off.

The cruise, on Fred Olsen Cruise Line's Balmoral, leaves Southampton on April 8 2012, exactly 100 years after the ill-fated ship set its course for New York.

People from all over the world have booked, including relatives of those who died, historians and people who are just interested in the Titanic story. Prices for the last remaining cabins start from £3,350 per person including the one-way flight back from New York.

Interestingly, Balmoral itself has hardly had a history of smooth sailing. I just hope it makes the crossing without losing too many passengers to the dreaded Norovirus vomiting bug.

If you're planning to book a P&O cruise for next year, do it next month, when the line is running a Early Booking Spectacular (their words, their capital letters!), with up to £1,500 per couple off cruises departing Southampton between March and October 2011.

They're also giving away free car parking or coach transfers on cruises of seven nights or more, on-board credit of up to £375 per couple and an extra 5% off if you pay for the cruise in full when you make the booking (roundtrip cruises from Southampton only).

You've got until Thursday September 30 to browse their brochure and make the booking. Call 0845 3 555 333, click here or see your travel agent.

If you'd rather get away sooner and escape the British rain, Iglucruise has a 26-night cruise from San Francisco to Sydney on October 13 on P&O Cruises' Oriana from £1,849 including flights, transfers and three nights at the Grace Hotel in Sydney. Call 020 8544 6447 or click here.

I'm recently back from a cruise along the US East Coast and into Canada so I can thoroughly recommend the places you'll visit on this nine-night Canada cruise offered by Cruise Thomas Cook from £1,140 per person including flights. I went with Princess, this one is with Carnival Cruise Lines, cruising on Carnival Glory, and it departs on October 2. Call 0800 916 6070, click here or visit your nearest Thomas Cook or Going Places.

River cruise companies say they are choc-full with bookings this year, but AMAWaterways has nevertheless found enough room to offer a few two-for-one deals on the Danube and Rhine including a seven-night Europe's Heartland cruise from Trier to Nuremberg on November 7. It now costs from £1,549 for two people including meals, wine with dinner, daily excursions but excluding flights. Call 0808 223 5009 or click here.

With the start of National Cruise Week now just two days away, it's time to think seriously about booking your 2011 cruise.

Now in its third year, National Cruise Week is organised by the Association of Cruise Experts and is the time of year when all the cruise lines come out with some great deals that you'd be mad to miss.

Your ACE travel agent will have details of all the offers but to whet your appetite here are some that have winged their way to Archer Towers.

P&O Cruises has a prize draw, giving one lucky winner the chance to win back the cost of their cruise. To qualify, you need to book one of the voyages in the cruise line's Early Booking Spectacular during National Cruise Week.

Fred Olsen has a special National Cruise Week brochure featuring great deals on 60 2011 sailings. The offers must be booked through an ACE agent.

MSC Cruises is giving away champagne, chocolate-coated strawberries and two MSC souvenir flutes to anyone booking an MSC cruise during National Cruise week. Quote "MSC welcome gift" when making the booking. If you book a 2011 cruise from the UK on MSC Opera, you could win back the cost of your cruise in a prize draw.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages is giving away a free no-fly cruise for two in a Cashback prize draw.

Norwegian Cruise Line is running a prize draw, refunding the cost of a seven-night Western Mediterranean cruise in 2011 for one lucky winner.

Star Clippers is offering a one category free cabin upgrade for all bookings made during National Cruise Week.

Hurtigruten is offering an 11-night cruise along the Norwegian coast for the price of six. The prize has to be taken between October and December this year, which means there's also a chance to see the Northern Lights.

Don't forget, to get the deals you have to book between September 19 and 26.

So how many of you watched Thomson Cruises being savaged by Watchdog on Thursday?

It was a damning indictment of Thomson Dream, but I would make two important points.

One: I am told the film was made in May or June, so surely they should have gone on board before airing the programme to see what passengers are saying now. But maybe that wouldn't have made such a good story (and did they really miss the fact the ship was in that fatal crash at Sharm el Sheikh?).

Two: Since the programme was broadcast, I have read plenty of reviews from past passengers who said they had a great time on the ship. Which just proves you only ever hear from people with negative things to say.

Not that I am here to be an apologist for Thomson Cruises.

My own observation for the Telegraph when I was on in April, just after it entered service for Thomson, was that it was "neither glitzy nor glamorous, nor indeed luxurious as suggested in the brochure".

It's that same old cruising malaise. If it's a cruise ship, it must be luxurious. Actually it's not. The ship is more than 20 years old and sailing for the cruise arm of a mass-market tour operator that specialises in good but budget holidays.

The same cruise line that once told me it's acceptable to charge passengers for using the security boxes at reception on its ships because the type of people who book with Thomson are used to paying for them on its land-based holidays.

It was also quite wrong for the "Thomson agent" in the film to say the ship was five star. She had no idea what she was talking about so gave the answer the caller wanted to hear to make a sale and earn commission. Such behaviour gives all travel agents a bad name.

However, taking Thomson to task for calling Dream their "new" ship was nonsense. It is Thomson's new ship. It just happens to be an old new ship (plenty was written about it being chartered from Costa Cruises before Thomson took delivery for those who could be bothered to look).

Since when have cruise lines proudly announced, "we're buying an old ship"?

In a press release announcing Adonia last December, P&O Cruises said: "The new ship will be named Adonia". This "new" ship launched in 2001 as R8 for Renaissance Cruises, became Minerva II for Swan Hellenic and is now sailing as Royal Princess for Princess Cruises.

In fairness also, managing director David Selby always said they would not be spending any money on the ship until the dry-dock in November. Whether that was a sound decision is another question.

Thomson Cruises' response to the programme was surprisingly low-key.

"Thomson Cruises is naturally sorry to hear that some of our customers did not enjoy their time on board Thomson Dream this summer. The fuller picture is far more positive, however. Throughout the summer the majority of our customers have told us that they enjoyed a fantastic holiday with us.  For example, 94% of customers rated the experience as good or excellent at the time Watchdog's team were onboard.

"The report has brought to light that there may have been some retail staff who may have misinformed customers, and for this we would like to apologise.  

"We accept that there were some challenges following the ship's introduction to our fleet in April of this year. The Captain and his crew did their utmost to resolve any concerns our customers may have had at the time.  Any outstanding concerns have been or are being looked at by our customer services team on a case-by-case basis.

Have you been on Thomson Dream recently? Was Watchdog fair. Let me know what you think.

I'm just back from a travel convention in Malta, when sadly no one told the weather the island was on show to the UK's travel trade.

Rain, gales, stormy seas. You name it, Malta threw it at us. When I went for a ship visit to Azamara Quest, which called at Valletta on Wednesday morning, I learnt they'd had an unpleasant night rocking and rolling around the Med before they docked, only to find the wind still blowing furiously.

"We wanted to make you feel at home," one of the staff told me as I checked in at the Hilton in Portomaso on Monday, having just got soaked walking a couple of yards from the taxi into the hotel. Funny man.

Apart from the weather, my brief sojourn was memorable for one of the debates at Tuesday's cruise forum called tradition vs innovation service, which revolved around the importance or otherwise of getting tickets in faux-leather wallets.

No one cares, the man from Carnival UK said, revealing they have saved £3 million a year by getting passengers (or their travel agents) to print tickets on-line.

Not true, said the travel agent, who reckoned many of his older customers only book a cruise for the smart ticket wallet they get (that was a joke by the way - or at least I hope it was! - but the point is they want their tickets presented formally in a wallet and not just a piece of paper they have had to print out themselves).

I had to feel sorry for him. He says his printing costs have escalated since cruise lines switched to sending all documents by email, the killer being when his customers want the shore excursion booklet - maybe 64 pages - printed as well.

Personally I am happy to check in on-line but object to the way cruise lines see this as a way to glean as much information about you as they can. Things they really don't need to know and are frankly none of their business.

Not to mention the fact their systems are often not up to the job. I remember trying to fill in the Carnival Cruise Lines' Fun Pass for a visit to Carnival Dream last November. The one thing it was not was fun.

What do you think? Do you want wallets or is online OK? Let us know.

I had to smile at this.

Eric Goldring, owner of US-based Goldring Travel, fears Silversea is compromising its all-inclusive product by charging passengers on its newest cruise ship Silver Spirit $18 to rent a soft porn movie.

"I am not so concerned about the type of movie, but the fact that Silversea is charging for it.

"When does finding ways to charge (extra cost dining, extra cost saki, extra cost unrequested charity donations, etc) begin to degrade the product of Silversea?"

He says he does not believe charging for movies - blue or otherwise - is appropriate.

Maybe not, but if he blew his principles (ahem!) I'm guessing he would be smiling too.

Britain's finances might be shot to pieces, swingeing cuts to government spending might be on the way, kids might be rioting about university fees.

But none of that is going to stop Britons cruising, it seems.

A record 1.62 million Brits took a cruise in 2010, latest figures from the Passenger Shipping Association show.

That's a 6% increase on 2009 and more than double the figure recorded in 2001.

It puts the UK on course to reach an expected 1.7 million this year and two million by 2014, according to the PSA.

Of course, the PSA counts each passenger as an individual, but some of those 1.62 million cruising Brits will have taken two, maybe even three cruises in a year.

We'll know more about repeat passenger numbers when all the 2010 stats are released in May during an agents' three-day UK Cruise Convention in Southampton.

Other figures from the PSA show:

- Cruising now accounts for 11.7% of the overseas package holiday market, up from 10.6% in 2009. It's an incredible figure when you consider that in 1997, less than 3% of package holidays booked were cruises.

- Cruising from the UK is still growing, with 653,000 Brits choosing to sail from a home port. That's 10% more than in 2009.

- Flycruises were up 3% to 968,000.

- The Mediterranean continues to be the most popular place to cruise, with 43% of Brits choosing to cruise there - an 18% increase on 2009. Northern Europe stayed second favourite, ahead of the Caribbean in third place.